Serenus
by christinaking
Summary: Emily is now a profiling consultant who occasionally works with the BAU. A tragic case brings new insights for Derek and Emily. Casefic/Teamfic. Established Prentiss/Morgan (Demily)
1. Chapter 1

_This story takes place after my other story, Labyrinthine. You can probably follow this one without reading that one if you're incredibly go-with-the-flow. Otherwise you're going to be saying "WTF?" a lot. I had to jump forward in time to make this story work, so you'll be reading in the past tense about a future date. Enjoy! -)_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_I sit in my car and watch Mary Irwin enter the coffee shop. She is predictable as always: Today is Tuesday morning and Mary has just dropped the kids at school before coming in for her morning cup of dark roast, to which she will add nonfat milk and a package of splenda. She will sit and drink her coffee for about twenty minutes and after she will head immediately home to exercise and shower before her regular Tuesday luncheon with her friends. I've watched her for weeks and her routine on Tuesdays does not waiver. It is also the day her live-in maid does the grocery shopping, leaving the house at precisely 9:00am, giving me ample time to do what I have planned. _

_As Mary steps to the counter, I start the car and my heart rate picks up. I am getting excited now. After weeks of watching and planning, it is finally time to act. I get in my car and drive the short distance to the park that borders the back of her property. I grab my backpack from the car and swing it on my shoulders, then take off at a jog, nodding at the other runners on the trail. After a quarter mile, I stop and stretch, waiting for the trail to be clear of foot traffic, then quickly slip into the trees. Two hundred yards uphill is the back fence to Mary's house. When I reach it, I open my backpack and pull on my jumpsuit, gloves and mask. They are not necessary since Mary will not live to identify me, but I believe in precaution and making sure I leave not a drop of my sweat behind. _

_I am breathing heavy, not from exertion, but from excitement. It's been too long since I've done this. I thought I could stop, but it's just not possible. Mary was mine from the moment I saw her picture on the internet. _

_I jump and grab the top of her fence, easily pulling myself up and over, and drop quietly to the ground, concealed by a large hedge. My timing is perfect, as I knew it would be. The maid is just getting in the car to leave for grocery shopping. Mary will be home in a little less than five minutes, at which point I will already be in the house. I make my way along the hedgeline until neither neighbor has a line of sight on me from their upstairs windows, then quickly walk to the back kitchen door. Using my elbow, I break the glass, reach in and turn the deadbolt, letting myself in the house. I quickly walk to the alarm panel and disarm it using the code I've seen Mary use so many times before. Then I turn the alarm on again, so Mary doesn't suspect anything when she comes in the front door. _

_My excitement has grown to the point that I feel I need to put my body in motion to temper it, but not yet. I take deep breaths and head upstairs to the closet in Mary's exercise room. As I'm closing the closet door, I hear Mary open the front door downstairs. Only moments to go. _

_I place the covers over my shoes. I check my back pocket for the syringe and the knife, grip my taser in one hand and sling the roll of duct tape around my other wrist, then wait. It takes Mary ten minutes before she enters the exercise room and I am out of the closet and on her, quickly stunning her with the taser. She falls to the ground and stares at me, moaning and frightened, but I have the duct tape over her mouth before she can make a loud sound. Next I pull out the syringe and plunge it her upper arm. Here is the only questionable part about my plan. I want Mary subdued, but awake. I want her alive long enough to know this is her end. I hold the knife to her neck to keep her quiet, wait for a few minutes and realize my calculations have been correct, based on her weight. Her eyes are fixed on me, but she can't move, and she's still breathing. Perfect. _

_I hold my finger to my mouth and wave my knife at her, warning her to be quiet, which is unnecessary, but makes me feel good. I slice open the front of her t-shirt and then her sports bra with my knife. I run one gloved finger down the center of her chest. Mary's eyes go from scared to complete panic. This is the point where they always seem to cry, where the fear of rape overrides the fear of death. At least that's what I think. _

_Mary, Mary, I'm not here to rape you. At least not really. You just have something you never should have had. I am here to take it away. _

_Of course, I don't say this out loud, but sometimes I like to think they can understand me. _

_Now comes the important part; I need symmetry. I center my finger over Mary's chest, right at the edge of her sternum and make two small puncture wounds with my knife, one on each side of my finger. Her eyes widen as I do this, and she tries to lift her arms towards me, but they are too heavy for her to move effectively. I remove my finger and sit up straight. I look Mary straight in the eye and shake my head. Her tears are falling freely now. I jam the knife quickly into one of the puncture wound I made, then lift the knife and jam it into the other. _

_Mary is still alive and it is time to end her before I can finish my job. She's seen enough; the rest is mine to enjoy in private. I carefully press the knife to Mary's neck and slice her artery and wait for the unconsciousness that will precede her quick death. Then my real fun begins. _

_Thirty minutes later I retrieve a plastic bag from my backpack. I place the knife and taser in first. I leave the syringe and the duct tape; I never use the same roll twice. I stand over Mary's body while I remove my mask, jumpsuit, gloves and shoe covers and shove the items in the plastic bag, then tie it and place the items back in my backpack. I sling the backpack on my back and grab a cloth from the pocket of my shorts. I walk downstairs and head to the back kitchen door. I use the cloth to press the "arm" button on the alarm. Then I use it to open the back kitchen door. _

_I am back in the hedge, over the fence, through the woods and back on the trail in minutes. A quick jog brings me back to my car. By the time the maid returns from the grocery store, I will be miles away. I smile at myself in the rearview mirror. _


	2. Chapter 2

March 8, 2015

Emily Prentiss sat in the den in her robe with her morning cup of coffee, staring out the window at the light dusting of snow in the front yard. This morning time in the den had become part of her routine and she relished the relaxing calm. Either after Derek left for work, or on weekend mornings before he woke up, she would give herself some quiet time. Often she'd write in her journal, but sometimes she would just sit and reflect. This Sunday morning she was reflecting. On this day last year she was traveling to this very house to tell Derek that she was resigning at Interpol and coming home. Last year it had been unseasonably warm on this day, and this year it was freezing cold. Weather, like life, was unpredictable.

Through the ups and downs and starts and stops of their relationship, Emily would fantasize about getting to this point with Derek - a real relationship they didn't have to hide, companionship, love, even living together. But that was always where her fantasies stopped; she really had no reference point for what came after that. So far, what had come after was better than she could have dreamed, had she known to dream about it.

Starting her own profiling consulting business had been efficient. She filled out and filed all the essential paperwork, Garcia gladly made her website, JJ helped spread her name around, and by the first week in September, she was ready to go. But after her first couple of cases, she had some serious doubts. It was very different to walk into a case, be contracted for five or ten hours of work, help interview witnesses or look at a crime scene and work up a basic profile, and then walk away. Her fresh perspective and the way she was able to work with victims was given high praise, but it was very difficult for her to not see the case to the end. On her first case, she was contracted for ten hours. She ended up working an additional forty hours off the books and unpaid because she wanted to help solve it. The second case was similar.

At that point she and Derek sat down and had a serious conversation about boundaries and he helped her come up with a different plan. She narrowed her specialty to cognitive interviews for women and child victims or witnesses. That's when various District Attorneys started calling, and that felt like a much better fit for her. She came in after a suspect was in custody much of the time; her job was to do cognitive interviews with the victims to make sure nothing was missed that could be used to build a stronger case, or make a case stick. On two occasions her interview results advised the DA that they had the wrong guy, and she was right. Often she greatly helped strengthen a case, sometimes she wasn't able to glean anything new. But she felt like she was giving something back to the victims. There's a certain amount of strength that can come from remembering and talking about the whole truth and then feeling like you can take control, Emily knew all too well.

The first case she worked for the Fairfax County DA was a child rape case. It was heart-wrenching, but during the cognitive interview, it came out that there was a second unsub who watched. The little girl, Hannah, only remembered that during the interview. The police were able to track the second suspect down, he quickly cracked during questioning, and the case solidified. The original suspect refused to plead out, though, hoping that Hannah would ultimately be unable to testify. So when the case came to trial, Emily used her own time to attend. Hannah brightened and relaxed the minute she saw Emily, and ended up being so strong on the stand. The DA noticed, suggested that Emily put it in her contract that trial hours were part of the deal in cases like that, and Emily agreed with him.

She still did consulting for cases for smaller police departments, mostly remotely, just looking at evidence and seeing if a fresh set of eyes could help, and she often did help. And she occasionally worked with the BAU, one or two cases a month, which she loved. Life on the job front was mellow compared to the BAU, but ultimately rewarding. Her reputation was solid and she had a steady stream of work coming in, her work hours were hers to make, and she got to sleep in her own bed almost every night.

Emily enjoyed the more domestic side of her life now. She never thought she'd actually enjoy cleaning and laundry, grocery shopping and cooking. All of the tasks may have seemed mundane, but they were the things that made her feel like she had a real home with Derek. In all her life she'd had places where she lived, but she never felt like she had a solid and loving home.

What surprised her was how much the love in her life extended beyond the walls of their house. She was worried she would feel like she was missing something critical being back, but not as an agent for the BAU; however, what she received instead was something she hadn't even considered. It started back on Labor Day weekend, when she and Derek invited everyone over for a barbeque, which was something of a miracle in and of itself; neither had a lot of experience with a barbeque. They'd actually had a practice run the night before, just so they wouldn't look like complete idiots. Emily smiled as she thought back to that weekend...

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Labor Day Weekend, 2014

By 2:00 that Saturday, the whole team was there, along with Jack and Henry. Will was in Louisiana for the weekend. Emily had gone to the store that morning and bought some things she thought the boys would like to play with, though she really had no clue. They seemed to be enjoying the frisbees and balls and Jack even conceded to blow bubbles for Henry to chase. Everyone was relaxed and in good spirits, there was much laughter, especially when Emily told the story about the practice run with the barbeque. Emily remembered thinking that day, _Oh, this is ordinary life, and it is fabulous. _

All of the adults were gathered around the table on the backyard deck when Jack and Henry approached and asked if anyone would play tag with them. Emily was the first to say, "Sure!" and stood up. Everyone stared at her in surprise. "What?," she asked, then turned to the boys, "Pay no attention to them. I am a master at tag." JJ got up to join her and they spent a fun twenty minutes chasing the boys around the back lawn, tag quickly dissolving into tickle fights and wrestling. Emily and JJ were laying on their backs on the lawn catching their breath when Derek announced that the burgers were almost ready. "Boys, go wash your hands please," said JJ, and the boys took off.

JJ reached her hand over and rested it on Emily's arm, "Don't take this the wrong way, Em, but I didn't think we'd all get to have this and I'm so glad we do."

"Get what?"

"The whole you. It's been nice to see you with your walls down around Derek, but I didn't think we'd necessarily get that, too."

"I don't really know what to say. Sometimes I feel like I'm a stranger to myself, but it's a stranger I like very much. It's all very weird and wonderful at the same time. But I want you to know that I love you, my friend. I love you all, and I'm glad I'm able to be like this with all of you, too."

JJ gave her a warm smile, "Love you, too, Em."

Around 7:00 that evening JJ got an emergency call. "Party's over, my friends. We're needed in Atlantic City. So sorry, Emily." Emily was disappointed, but quickly got over it. They'd had several wonderful hours together, there would be other gatherings like this in the future and she understood the job. "It's really ok."

JJ nodded and looked at her phone, "Now to track down the babysitter."

"I could take him," Emily said spontaneously. "We have a spare room and I'd love to have Henry."

"Um, ok? Are you sure? I can leave you the sitter's number and you can hand him off tomorrow if we're still gone. But he doesn't have any clothes or anything here."

"JJ, your house is five minutes away. How about you give me the keys and we can go over and get what he needs? I can keep him until Will gets home on Monday if necessary."

Jack piped up, "Can I stay too, Emily?" He turned to look at Hotch and continued, "Instead of with Jessica? My ready bag is in the car."

Jack, used to being handed off at a moment's notice, was always prepared. Hotch looked at Emily and raised his eyebrows. "Absolutely, Jack," Emily said. "I'd love to have you here, too."

It was settled quickly, Emily got the necessary numbers from JJ and Hotch, Derek swooped in and kissed her goodbye. "Have fun, Mary Poppins. I'll keep you posted." Garcia left with a parting, "I'll check in with you, Auntie Em." And then it was just Emily with the two boys.

"So," she said, "How about you guys help me get all this stuff into the kitchen? Then we can go grab Henry's things, and then we can watch a movie and have popcorn."

"And candy?" asked Henry. Jack looked at her hopefully. Emily laughed, "Sure, and a little bit of candy, too."

By 8:15 they were settled together on the couch. The boys agreed on Kung Fu Panda for a movie from the Netflix selections. Emily had a boy on each side of her, she'd given them each small bowls of M & Ms from Derek's stash, and had made a big bowl of popcorn, which she settled on her lap. It was surprisingly comfortable and natural, the whole thing so far. Henry didn't make it long before his eyes started drooping. When he settled himself with his head on Emily's thigh and drifted off to sleep, a little something inside her burst; not quite maternal, and not quite a longing, but something that felt like a void she hadn't yet acknowledged was being filled. She smiled sweetly at his face and gently stroked his head.

The next morning the boys woke early, and Emily decided to throw caution to the wind, brave the Labor Day Weekend traffic and head to Greenbriar Lake. They had a wonderful day playing in the water, taking paddleboat rides, enjoying a picnic lunch and making an intricate sand castle. Each minute she found herself falling a bit more in love with both boys, who were just so kind and enthusiastic. They were having so much fun that Emily didn't even check her phone until 2:00pm. Twelve new text messages, all from JJ, Hotch and Derek except the last one, which was from Garcia and had arrived 10 minutes earlier. "I see your car on GPS in Maryland. Did you kidnap the boys? Respond to a text so they don't send in the calvary."

Emily asked a woman next to them to take a picture, and posed with the boys next to the sand castle. She attached the image to a text message to the whole team. "Sorry! We were too busy building our masterpiece. Having a great day...stop worrying!"

She ended up happily keeping the boys an additional night. Jessica came and got Jack to do some back to school shopping early on Monday morning, and Emily took Henry to a small festival in the shopping area near the house. They sampled food and hit the bookstore, where Emily dropped a hefty amount of money on children's books. After pony rides and ice cream, Henry wanted to get his face painted, and asked if Emily would get hers painted, too.

"Sure, I can do that," Emily said. "What do you want yours to be?"

"Batman!"

Emily laughed at his enthusiasm, "And who should I be?"

"Wonder Woman!"

That afternoon, JJ and Derek returned to the house to find Emily and Henry snuggled together and passed out on the wide cushioned bench in the reading nook, surrounded by books, faces still painted. Emily awoke when Derek gently touched her face. "Hey Wonder Woman," he smiled at her, "Do some monetary damage at the bookstore today?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After that, Emily talked to both JJ and Hotch and eagerly volunteered to be a regular part of their babysitter rotation should they need overnight care when the team was on a case. For Hotch, it meant giving Jessica a break, greatly lifting some of the guilt he felt about relying solely on her for so much. It eased a lot of tension for JJ and Will as well. When JJ was on a case, Emily was almost always home, and one of the major frustrations that often surfaced for Will about JJ's job calmed greatly when he could hand Henry over to Emily, who felt like family, rather than a random babysitter. It also gave them some wiggle room in their budget, since on-call overnight sitters did not come cheaply, and Emily told them both that under no circumstances would she accept their money.

As a result, she had Henry a few nights a month, and Jack when the team was out of town on a Friday or Saturday night. Their relationship with Hotch changed; he relaxed a lot more. He'd come pick up Jack and loosen his tie and have a beer and laugh. Their home became a happy place where people could just be and Emily loved it. It was easy enough for Emily to plan her work schedule in a way that worked for Henry's school schedule when she knew Will was on-call. Having had the exact opposite of a carefree and happy childhood, she found herself able to vicariously have one with them. That fall and winter they created a lot of joyful memories of pumpkin patches, apple picking, snowball fights and sledding.

Derek's family had welcomed Emily enthusiastically and they'd had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas all together. At first Emily felt overwhelmed by the warmth and affection Derek's mom and sisters showered on her, but she quickly got used to it and accepted the love with open arms. On more than one occasion Derek's mom had wrapped Emily in a hug and thanked her for bringing back a light in Derek's eye that she hadn't seen since before his father was murdered.

Things with Derek were loving, comfortable and passionate. They were as good at living together as they were when they worked in the field together in a lot of ways; when there was a problem, they talked about it, listened to each other and quickly figured out a plan. There were very few problems, though, and those they did have were minor. There was still plenty of spontaneity in their sex life, which she'd thought might wane by now, but hadn't. Emily smiled and shook her head as thought back to the evening before...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

March 7, 2015

They'd just come back from working on Derek's recent house project. Emily showered while Derek put some tools away in the garage. By the time he came back inside and got in the shower himself, Emily had blow-dried her hair. She was just finishing up her makeup when Derek emerged from the shower. He took note of the towel wrapped around her body and gave her a devilish grin.

"I know that look in your eye," Emily said to Derek's reflection in the mirror. "JJ and Garcia are going to be here soon to pick me up, so don't even think about it, buddy," she said sternly.

He gave her a smirk in the mirror and reached forward to slide his hand up her inner thigh and under the towel.

"I need to make sure you know what's waiting for you at home while you're out drinking with the ladies. Besides, it's 7:00," he whispered, bringing his other arm in front of her so she could see his watch. "You said they were coming at 7:30. Plenty of time."

He brought his hand around the front of her thigh and up to lightly tickled her hip bone.

"I'm not even dressed yet."

"Exactly," he said while sliding both his hands up under the towel and teasing her nipples. Emily closed her eyes and let out a soft whimper. "You know we can be fast when we need to be."

"I just showered."

"I'll make it so fast you won't even break a sweat. How about I make you a deal, Em. You give me three minutes, at which point you can tell me to stop or tell me to keep going. You up for a little challenge?

Emily told herself there was plenty of time and said, "Bring it," knowing she would lose this challenge the second the words were out of her mouth.

Derek smiled happily and tore the towel from her body. He turned Emily around and lifted her so she was sitting on the edge of the counter. He made a quick path of kisses down her neck and chest, settling himself on his knees on her discarded towel. Emily moaned the second his tongue touched her. He knew exactly what to do to make this fast, and she was already on the verge of tumbling over the edge when he pulled his mouth away and said, "Time's up. Want me to stop?"

"Not if you want to live," she gasped out. Derek laughed and stood. He wrapped her legs around his waist and his arms around her and lifted, turning them around so her back was up against the wall. He entered her in one swift movement and Emily cried out in ecstasy, completely falling apart after five quick thrusts. When it came to his own orgasms, Derek had total control over himself. He could let go quickly, or hang on for an excruciatingly long time, driving her absolutely crazy. True to his word, Derek made it fast, and scant moments later he buried his head in Emily's neck and moaned out his own release. They stayed there entwined, her legs wrapped around him and arms wrapped around each other, catching their breath and slowing their heart rates.

"I am far too easy," teased Emily, pressing a kiss to Derek's cheek. He huffed out a laugh against her neck.

Suddenly they could hear the sound from downstairs of JJ's telltale double knock, and then the front door opening.

"Emily," JJ called up the stairs, "You almost ready?"

Emily tried for a normal voice and called back, "I'll be down in ten minutes. There's an open bottle of wine on the counter. Help yourselves." She pushed on Derek's chest, disentangled herself so she could stand and said, "Next time you try something like this, if you could remember to lock the front door, that would be brilliant." He gave her a grin and shrugged his shoulders, looking at his watch. "Not my fault they're so early," he said with a wink. She playfully slapped his ass. "Stop looking so pleased with yourself."

About ten minutes later, she rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen, dressed, but with socks and boots in one hand while she smoothed down her hair with the other. "Sorry, guys," she said to JJ and Garcia as she sat down in a chair to put on her shoes. They took one look at Emily's slightly disheveled appearance and then looked at each other with smirks, slight shakes of their heads and rolls of their eyes. Emily pretended not to see that. "You're early."

Garcia looked at her watch. "Actually, we were right on time. It's 7:42 now. Lose track of time there, my sweet little harlot?"

Emily blushed slightly. "No, I didn't," she said firmly while zipping up one boot. At that moment Derek came down the stairs. "Derek Morgan you changed the time on your watch when you were in the shower, didn't you?" He gave her a fake frightened look. JJ and Garcia quickly put what had happened together and started laughing. "Don't encourage him," hissed Emily. "You are so dead when I get home, Morgan."

She zipped up her second boot and stood, "Let's go."

"Sorry, Em," Derek said with a smile on his face.

She shook her head, "Dead." Emily put on her coat and picked up her purse and opened the front door, letting JJ and Garcia go out first, both of whom were trying not to laugh. Traitors.

"I love you, Emily," he said in a sing-song voice.

She turned and took a step forward, planting a quick kiss on his lips. "I love you, too, but you're still in for it. And I'm going to use these two traitors," she gestured to JJ and Garcia, "to help me come up with a payback plan."

Derek's face fell, "Ok, now I'm scared."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily laughed quietly to herself, thinking about that look on his face. They were both like kids in a candy store when it came to sex sometimes, which was fun. But they were also lazy-Sunday-morning-sex and romantic-evenings-in-front-of-the-fireplace-sex. Yes, that part of her life was clicking on all cylinders, but she'd really never had a doubt about that.

When Emily thought back to what a mess she was a few years ago, she still had a hard time believing just how absolutely amazing her life was now. She no longer felt like a stranger to herself, but sometimes when she woke in the mornings she had a moment where she had to remind herself that her current life was not a dream.

Emily was torn from her reflections when she heard Derek's voice calling from upstairs. She smiled and went to the kitchen to pour him a cup of coffee, wondering if he'd remember the significance of today's date. She climbed the stairs and entered the bedroom to find Derek in bed, laying on his side, facing the door, two small wrapped presents in front of him. Of course he would remember the day. Emily sat down on the bed and handed him his cup of coffee, which he set on his nightstand.

"Presents?"

"Absolutely," said Derek with a smile. "It's an important day. You get one of these for sure, and maybe you get the second one, too."

"Maybe?" Emily asked with grin.

"I'm a nice guy. I'll probably let you have them both no matter what," he said with a wink.

Emily smiled and Derek slid one of the presents over, an envelope with a bow on it. She set her coffee mug on her nightstand and lifted the flap on the envelope pulling out a card written in Derek's handwriting: _Dinner reservations tonight at 8:00 at Rasika. Dress appropriately._

"Seriously? So not only did you remember the date, but you remembered it enough in advance to make reservations there? I'm impressed, Mr. Morgan," Emily said with a smile. She leaned over to kiss him, "Thank you. I'm looking forward to it."

Derek put his finger on the top of the second box and slid it toward her, but kept his finger in place. Emily raised her eyebrows at him. "Emily Prentiss, what would you say if I asked you to marry me?"

Emily inhaled deeply. It's not that she hadn't expected this at some point, but it still took her by surprise. Her eyes immediately stung with tears and she smiled at him. "Why don't you try me?"

"Will you marry me?"

"Name the time and the place, Derek Morgan. I'm there."

A huge smile filled his face and he grabbed the box and shifted his position to pull Emily in a hug. "I was going to ask you tonight at the restaurant, but I was worried you might say 'no'."

Emily couldn't help laughing. "Really?"

"Ok, I lied. I knew you'd probably say yes, but I couldn't wait and I decided I didn't want to do this in public.

She pulled her face back from his shoulder and kissed him, then rested her forehead against his, "In all the love stories in all of time, I don't think anyone has ever come close to loving someone as much I love you."

Derek hastily ripped the wrapping paper from the box and opened the lid, so the ring faced him. He looked her in the eye and said, "This is going to completely crush all past evidence of me not being macho, I just want you to know. The main diamond is where we are now. The diamonds on the band represent where we've been. The first time, then the first time we stopped this, then the starting again, and the next time we stopped this, then another start, and the next stop. When I thought you died, when you came back, when you went away to London, and when we started again." Derek paused to look at Emily who was freely crying now, and then continued, "The first time we read together via Skype, all the times we saw each other when you were in London, the day you flew here, on this date, to tell me you were coming home, the cabin and that weekend, and August 1st, 2014 - the happiest day of my life, when you moved back. Though, I think this day may beat that. Twenty-four small diamonds that tell our story. And you're right, it's the best love story ever."

"Where on earth did you come from?" Emily whispered and wiped her cheeks. "Can I see the ring?"

Derek pulled the ring from the box and held it up to show her, grabbing her left hand and placing it on her ring finger. Emily gasped. It was absolutely beautiful, white gold, a princess cut, the main diamond was big, but not too big, and the small diamonds in the split band along each side told their story.

She reached up and placed a hand on Derek's cheek. "Derek Morgan, I love you. I am going to go shopping today. I am going to buy a dress that will blow your mind for our dinner tonight, and what I wear under it is going to make you faint."

"Does this mean I'm forgiven for the watch stunt last night?"

Emily rolled her eyes at him. "Yes. But you have to understand when you do things like that and they think we just did the deed, it's like open season on questions about our sex life. They're relentless. But you're forgiven."

He laughed softly, "Sorry, Em." He reached to loosen the knot on her robe, "Do you have to go shopping right now?"

"Nope. Stores won't even open for a couple more hours. We have all the time in the world."


	3. Chapter 3

_I knew it was a bad idea the moment I hatched my plan. Too risky. She was just too risky. Stronger than my others, an unpredictable setting, an unreliable plan. Yet, once I'd started, I couldn't stop myself. Not when it turned bad, not when I was nearly caught, not when I had to scramble for a back-up plan. Jessica Elmwood was the one who had to go. The most absolutely perfect one of all. I had to follow through and I did. _

XXXXXXXXXX

March 8, 2014

The dress was gorgeous, a creamy mocha color and it hugged every curve. It was long sleeved with a plunging neckline and fell to mid-thigh; sheer stockings and high heels completed the outfit. Emily had curled her hair and let it fall loosely in waves around her shoulders. The ring glinting on her left hand, which she couldn't stop looking at, perfected the picture. When she appeared on the stairs and saw Derek's face, Emily smiled, "Everything that's underneath this dress will be here later. Let's go have a fabulous dinner, my love."

"Emily Prentiss, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. I seriously can barely stand up looking at you. But I'm an idiot. In all of my careful planning about today, I forgot to get gas in my car and we're cutting it close to our reservation time."

"Epic fail," Emily laughed. "Luckily, my sweet man, we have two cars and mine has plenty of gas." She walked to her purse and tossed him her keys. "You drive. I'll ogle for awhile." Derek smiled, "As you wish, Princess."

The drive was short without traffic and dinner was amazing. They lingered slowly over each course and had great conversations about their relationship, laughing over some of their sneakier sex exploits when they used to have to hide everything. They touched on wedding plans, but couldn't come up with anything solid, except that they wanted it small and simple and June seemed like a good month.

After dinner, they stood bundled in their coats waiting at the curb for the valet to bring the car. The sky was clear and the sun had been out earlier, melting the snow from the night before, but the temperature had plummeted again in the evening and it was freezing. Emily linked her fingers with Derek's and leaned towards him, "In an effort to show my commitment to 100% honesty, while hoping not to be presumptuous, I have to tell you that I don't have a condom. Do we need to stop on the way?"

Derek laughed. "You remember that word for word?"

"I don't claim to have an eidetic memory, Derek, but I remember every detail of that first time." He shot her a smile as the car pulled up to the curb. Once they were both settled inside, him in the driver's seat, Emily turned to face him, reached her right arm out and dragged her fingers down his chest to his thigh, then ran them up his inner thigh and over his zipper.

"Jesus, Em."

"Derek Morgan, I am going to do so many deliciously naughty things to that body of yours tonight."

Derek chuckled, "Bring it. But let's get home safely first."

At that moment, Derek's work phone rang, JJ's ringtone. "Fuck," he breathed while answering the phone.

"Derek, we've got a big one. Serial murderer and sexual sadist. Hotch wants Emily on this one. Meeting in the briefing room in one hour. Sorry."

"Got it." Derek hung up the phone and banged his head against the headrest, groaning. Emily touched his hand, "It's ok, love. It's the job, it's what you do."

"Not just me, Em. Hotch is calling you in, too. You have a ready bag in the car?"

"Yes. You have one at work?"

"Of course," he sighed. "At least we'll be together this time."

XXXXXXX

The team was gathered when they walked into the briefing room, and they all looked at Emily with wide eyes. Rossi whistled. "Where were you two tonight?"

"Dinner," Derek grumbled as he flopped in a seat.

"Sorry, my friends," said JJ sincerely.

Emily shrugged, "It's ok. It happens. Can I have five minutes to change?"

Hotch nodded and Derek looked at her dress one more time and pouted. Emily laughed and patted his shoulder before walking out the door, ready bag in her hand. She was disappointed that their evening had ended early, but she was happy to have been called in too, and to be able to work with the team.

She changed quickly into jeans and a tan turtleneck sweater and re-entered the briefing room, taking the chair between Derek and JJ. She clasped her hands together on the table in front of her and JJ immediately said, "Whoa!," and grabbed Emily's left hand. "Did this happen tonight?"

Emily smiled, "This morning."

JJ reached over and gave Emily a hug, "Congratulations, Em." After a pause, she added, "And you, too, Derek."

"Don't mind me, I just buy the jewelry." Derek said sarcastically, but with a smile on his face.

Garcia squealed and rushed over, taking hold of Emily's hand, "Wow. It's beautiful. Way to put a ring on it, Derek Morgan." The team chuckled.

Reid and Rossi extended their congratulations and Hotch cleared his throat and smiled at them, "Congratulations, you two. I'm sorry we interrupted your night, but we need to get started. JJ?"

JJ stood and nodded. "The Fauquier County Sheriff's Department called us about two hours ago, after the body of Jessica Elmwood was found in a ditch off a quiet road outside of Warrenton. At first glance, it appears the unsub who attacked her used spikes in the road to blow the tires on her car. Another woman, Sarah James, happened to come along that same road and her tires blew." JJ paused while Garcia flashed a picture of an elegant, middle-aged African American woman up on the screen. "When she got out of her car to investigate what had happened, she heard a woman screaming. Sarah ran down the embankment and caught the unsub in the act; he stabbed Sarah in the abdomen and took off. Sarah checked on Jessica, but she was already gone, bled out. That's when Sarah returned to her car and called 911. Sarah fainted before the police arrived, but she told the 911 dispatcher that the unsub was a man in a dark green jumpsuit, wearing gloves and mask. Sarah was driving with her four year old foster daughter, Serena Ellis, in the car. Both are at Fauquier Hospital right now; Serena's fine and Sarah is in surgery but is expected to pull through. Garcia?"

"Right, so they called us because the deputy recalled a case he heard about in Durham, North Carolina a couple of months ago that sounded similar. He called JJ, and JJ put him through to me and I did a little sleuthing and I think he's right that we have a serial sicko on the loose out there. This unsub is all over the map, but it's most definitely the same guy."

Garcia flashed a picture on the screen of a beautiful blonde woman. "Alison Lawson, 34, from San Diego, California. Body was discovered in the stairwell of her office building back in April 2014. Stabbed three times in the chest, perfectly centered, evenly spaced perpendicular cuts. Carotid artery slashed, genitals mutilated with a knife. Evidence shows a taser was used to initially subdue her, and metabolites consisted with Succinylcholine was in the blood, but not too much. Again, enough to subdue but not to cause respiratory failure before the unsub could kill her himself. Coroner says the initial chest stab happened first, then the artery was slashed. She died before the next two stab wounds were delivered to the chest. Genital mutilation happened after. And with that, I'm going to let JJ take over because this is so not my thing."

JJ nodded at Garcia and another blonde woman's face filled the screen. "Jill Sherwood, 42, from Toronto, Canada. Found dead off a hiking trail near her home in May 2014. Same M.O., except this time there were four stab wounds in the chest and the same genital mutilation."

Another blonde woman's face filled the screen, "Mary Irwin, age 41, from Durham, North Carolina. Found dead in her home on January 27th. Six stab wounds this time. Her case was the only one we've found so far committed in the day time. Then tonight, there's Jessica Elmwood, age 37. Seven stab wounds, though the last isn't as symmetric as all the others, probably because Sarah interrupted the unsub. No genital mutilation either, likely because of the interruption as well."

Hotch spoke up, "All of these women have more in common than their features and ages. All were married to African American men, and all of them had children."

"This guy is seriously pissed off about blonde women marrying African American men. Are the children part of it or is that just coincidence based on the victims' ages? And why such a gap between killings?" asked Rossi.

"And where are victims one, two and five?" asked Morgan.

"I looked," said Garcia. "Lots of stabby people out there, but nothing that matches this M.O. at all."

"We might need to cast our nets farther," said Reid. "With the case in Toronto, we may need to consider someone who travels frequently, and stays for long periods of time. Long enough to be able to find these women, figure out their routines, and kill them without getting caught. Because none of these are random. He created traps based on their routines, guaranteed. But I can't get a geographic profile from this."

"JJ and Emily, I want you to interview Jessica Elmwood's husband at the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office, then drive to to the hospital," said Hotch, "I want you there when Sarah wakes up from surgery. Question both her and Serena and see what they remember." Hotch paused to consider for a moment. "Garcia, ride with them. I want you to set up at the sheriff's office there for now. It's the most recent crime scene and they'll need our help. I know you don't like doing this, but we're going to be spread a little thin here. I need you to contact the police in San Diego and Toronto and start a board for us."

"Ugh. Ok, but you, Captain, will owe me."

Hotch nodded and continued, "Reid and Rossi, take the jet to Durham and check out Mary Irwin's house. JJ already called the husband and he knows you're coming but it will be late. He's waiting up. Morgan and I will head to Jessica Elmwood's crime scene. When we're done there, we'll join Garcia. Garcia, keep digging. Let's find out if there are three other victims out there that we're missing. Stay in touch. Let's try and get a profile together quickly."

The team stood and Emily walked over to Hotch. "This isn't the type of case you usually call me in for."

"Do you have another case you need to be working on?"

"Cognitive interviews on past rape victims in Baltimore. They've arrested someone in connection to another case and they think these women may also be his victims. I already texted the DA and asked him to move the interviews to Thursday, which he said actually works better for him anyway. The case won't go to trial for awhile, so it's not that big of a deal. But there aren't a lot of victims to interview for this case, Hotch."

Hotch nodded, "I know. But I'm worried if we find other victims that require travel, the team will be short. Besides, I want you to do the cognitive interviews for Serena and Sarah. Word on the street is that you could pull secrets out of Houdini."

Emily raised her eyebrows and Hotch smiled, "You have quite a remarkable reputation in the area, Emily. I hear things. Sarah James is our best lead and I don't want anything missed. But I am sorry for interrupting your evening and congratulations again. I'm very happy for you both."

"Thanks, Aaron," Emily said and gave him a squeeze on the shoulder. "Let's go catch us a bad guy."


	4. Chapter 4

JJ chewed up the highway miles between Quantico and Warrenton. There were few cars on the road at 11:00pm, and the lights flashing on top of the suburban cleared the ones that were there.

"So, Miss Emily. You're getting married, eh?" JJ asked.

"Yes Em2, I want all the details!" said Garcia enthusiastically from the back seat.

Emily looked back at Garcia and raised her eyebrows, "Em2?"

"It's what I've been calling you around the office for awhile now. Like the second version of yourself. I like it. It's a good nickname."

Emily laughed, "It's better than some of the ones you come up with for sure. I'll let you call me Em2 if you drop the Auntie Em business. That makes me feel old."

"Deal. Now deets. Spill."

Emily smiled thinking back to that morning. "He asked me and I told him to name the time and the place. He already had the ring; he must have ordered awhile ago. Each of the twenty four small diamonds on the sides represent a significant date for us."

"That man is so romantic," said Garcia with a sigh.

"When are you thinking, Em?"

"We were talking tonight about June. We want something small and simple, but I don't know. The idea of standing up there and getting married in front of people makes me feel nervous and kind of embarrassed."

Garcia laughed, "Emily, we've seen forty-seven pictures of you two doing the naked pretzel and you feel embarrassed about getting married in front of us?"

"Hey! Only forty-five of those pictures were naked-pretzel-esque, and I really try to forget about the fact that you all saw those, so if you could stop bringing it up, that would be fantastic."

JJ and Garcia quieted for a moment, then looked at each other in the rearview mirror and started laughing. "Naked-pretzel-esque," giggled JJ.

"You two are both going to hell," said Emily, but then she laughed, too, before taking a deep breath. "OK, enough of this for now, we've got work to do. Penelope, tell us about Jessica Elmwood."

"Oh," Garcia moaned, sobering quickly. "It's so horrible and sad. I like to talk about happy things. But I suppose it must be done." She reached in her bag and opened a file.

"Jessica Elmwood's maiden name is Pierce. She married Alex Elmwood eight years ago when she was 29 and he was 30. They have two daughters: Alexis is 6 years old and Emma is 2. Alex is a professor at George Mason and Jessica was a preschool teacher. Alex's mother lives with them and they live in Fairfax. That's about all I have for now."

Emily turned her head towards the window and shook her head.

"What, Em?" asked JJ.

"I just can't wrap my head around that kind of hate. That someone would be so angry at a white woman for marrying a black man that it would create that kind of rage. I haven't really thought about the color of Derek's skin since the first day we met and even then it was a side note. He's just Derek Morgan, you know? And we're out in public all of the time and I've never felt anyone disapproving. But it's unnerving to be reminded that people like that are out there."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Morgan and Hotch rolled up to the crime scene and exited the vehicle. A deputy came to greet them. "Thanks for coming. I'm Sergeant Mike Teale. I was the one who called you." Hotch extended his hand to the man and said, "Agent Hotchner, and this is Agent Morgan. What do we have?"

"We moved the body to the Fairfax morgue after the husband made the ID. They're better equipped to deal with something like this. We had the dogs out here and they found a pile of clothing, some melted plastic, looks like electronic equipment, and the blade of a knife around the bend in the road up there burned to a crisp. An accelerant was used and there are tire marks on the road, like the suspect was spinning out of here quickly. The ground is frozen solid, so no footprints."

Hotch recognized the nervousness of an officer jumping all over the map, dealing with a crime bigger than he was used to seeing. "You've done a great job. Can you take us to where the cars were and walk us through the crime scene?" asked Hotch.

Teale nodded and walked them down the road to a silver Toyota Highlander. "This is Sarah's car. She pulled it over right in front of Jessica's. The spiked wire is about twenty yards up the road that way. I know from your Agent Garcia that Jessica called her husband at 7:35pm to let him know she was on her way home from her mother's house. That house is about six miles up the road there. We figure that she hit the spiked wire around 7:45pm. There are no signs of a struggle in the car, so I think she probably got out to look at her tires and the suspect grabbed her then. Sarah's 911 call came in at 8:32pm. I walked through what I thought could have happened. Sarah James hit the spiked wire and pulled her car to the side of the road. She emerged from the vehicle and heard a woman screaming. She went down into the ditch. She surprised the suspect and was stabbed. She staggered to check on Jessica and didn't find a pulse. She came back up the embankment slowly because of her injury. That's the best I've got."

"Sounds reasonable. What we need to figure out is how the suspect knew that Jessica would be traveling down that road at that time, " said Morgan. "And we need to hear from Sarah James about what she saw."

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Mr. Elmwood? Thank you for waiting here." Emily reached out and put a gentle hand on the man's shoulder. "I'm Emily and this is Jennifer. We're with the FBI and we're here to talk to you about your wife. I am so sorry for your loss."

"It doesn't seem real. Our girls are sleeping and have no idea. My mother is at the house with them. They don't even know what's going on. How could this happen?"

Emily took a seat in front of Alex Elmwood. "I personally know the feeling of things like this seeming unreal. You're going to have to go through a process and it's going to be a long road, but you can make it through. I'm here to help you with that as much as I can. But right now, we need to ask you some questions so we can catch the man who did this and make sure he doesn't do this to anyone else."

Alex Elmwood looked at Emily and nodded. He rubbed his hands over his face. "Ok. What do you need to know?"

Emily took Alex's hand and placed it between her own, surprising JJ, who had to remind herself that Emily had been operating outside the BAU for months now, and making up her own way to get results. "What was your favorite thing about Jessica?"

Alex took a deep breath. "She always made me smile. When I had a rough day at work, or when the girls were bickering and driving me crazy, she always knew the perfect thing to say to make me laugh or relax me."

"That's a wonderful quality, Alex. You have so many great memories to hold onto. Had Jessica been acting differently lately? Anything odd you can think of?"

"No. Wait, yes. Once. About two weeks ago she seemed tense when I came home from work. She said that she felt like someone was always watching her. When I asked her who, she said she didn't know. It just felt strange. Then she laughed it off and said it was probably her imagination. She didn't bring it up again and acted normally after that."

"And tonight?"

"Jessica always went to her mom's house on Sunday evenings. She brought her mom dinner. Her mother didn't approve of her relationship with me, and she's never met the girls. But Jessica was always hopeful that her mom might change her mind, so almost every Sunday she went there and had dinner with her mom."

Emily shifted her position, removing her top hand from Alex's and placing it on his shoulder instead. "That's good. She sounds like a very determined woman. What about other parts of her routine. Other than those Sunday evenings, was Jessica ever predictably alone? Somewhere where someone could get to her without easily being seen?"

"No, not really. Nothing predictable. She worked out at a gym, but the times were never planned. She took the window of opportunity when she could. Nothing regular like the Sundays with her mom."

"Alex, this helps us so much. Thank you." Emily took her hand off his shoulder and placed it back on the top of his hand, sandwiching it again between her own.

"Is this my fault, Emily? I heard what other detectives were talking about while I waited, about how this person was stalking white women married to black men. Jessica almost ended things after she told her mom about us and her mom reacted so badly. That was nine years ago. I told her it would be ok. Was this my fault?"

"No," Emily said softly. "Choose to let that idea go. She was with you because she loved you. She made you laugh every day for years. That's the piece you hold onto, Alex."

"What do I tell the girls?"

"You tell them that their mother loved them. You tell them that most of the people in this world are good and loving, but there are a few bad guys. You tell them that every once in awhile a bad guy finds a good person, and tonight a bad guy found their mother. You tell them that they can still feel safe in this world, and that their mother will always be watching over them. And you make sure they never lose faith in the goodness of people. You can do that. I can tell just by talking with you."

Alex looked up with tears in his eyes and stared at Emily. "Thank you."

Emily patted his hand, stood up and went to her purse looking through it. "You may need some extra support. I often work with children and families." She pulled out a card and handed it to Alex. "This therapist is wonderful. She's in Fairfax and I'll leave her a message to make sure she knows you might be calling."

Alex stood up and wrapped his arms around Emily, who returned the hug. "Thank you again, Emily. Can I go home now?"

"Yes," said Emily. "You go be with your girls. We'll call you if we need anything else."

Alex released her and nodded at JJ before walking out the door of the office.

Emily felt JJ's wide eyes on her. "That was...different. Impressive."

"It's what we always do, Jayje."

"No, we're always empathetic, but very objective and distant in a lot of ways."

"I spend many of my working hours talking to women and child victims of horrible crimes, and their families. My scope has just narrowed and I can pick up on the best way to approach people just by quickly reading their body language now. Some men are angry and wouldn't want me to touch them with a ten foot pole. Alex Elmwood was broken and sad and he needed to feel connected and acknowledged and like he still had some control." Emily shrugged and smiled at her friend. "I'm different now, too. We always bring who we are into our work and this is how I work now. I traded in my gun for hugs."

JJ laughed and nodded. "Ok, Em2. Let's head over to the hospital."


	5. Chapter 5

Derek and Hotch walked into the police station with Sergeant Teale and found Garcia typing at one of her laptops. A board was set up in front of her with pictures of Alison Lawson and Jill Sherwood, along with pertinent information regarding both of those cases.

"Thank you, Garcia. Nice work. Sergeant Teale, this is Penelope Garcia. Tell us what you have," said Hotch.

"Ok, Alison Lawson had a three year old daughter with her husband, Jared Lawson. He's a sportscaster on a local news station in San Diego. Alison stayed home with her daughter, but she used to be a hospital psychologist. On Wednesday evenings she ran a support group for patients recovering from medical trauma, using a large room in one of her old colleague's private offices on the third floor of that building. According to the San Diego police department, Alison was always the last to leave those meetings after cleaning up, and the building was virtually deserted at that time. Alison walked the three floors down to the street exit. It's an old building, no cameras in the stairwell. She was attacked on the second floor landing."

"Reid was right that this guy knew their routines inside and out," said Morgan.

"Yes, Jill Sherwood hiked on the trails where she was found every Thursday evening with her dog. She probably felt safe with the dog, even as it grew dark. However, that evening, her dog had a limp and Jill decided to leave him home and hike anyway. She'd lived there her whole life. It's a safe area and nothing like this had ever happened around there before. She likely didn't give it a second thought. Her husband was Michael Sherwood, and they had two sons, ages 8 and 6. She was a researcher for a bio-med company in Toronto."

"You think he got to the dog?" asked Teale.

"It's likely," said Morgan. "What did Emily and JJ find out from Jessica Elmwood's husband?"

"Same deal. Jessica went to her mother's house every Sunday evening. It's a very quiet road, only a few houses up that far, all of them occupied by elderly people who have lived there for decades, and none who would likely be out on the road on a Sunday evening after dark. JJ and Emily are at the hospital now."

"The unsub likes to take risks, but they are planned ones." Hotch said as he looked at his watch. "Reid and Rossi should be at the house in Durham by now. We'll wait to see what they have to say. Hopefully Prentiss and JJ will be back here soon and we can sit down together and talk out a profile."

"Emily Prentiss?" asked Sergeant Teale with a hopeful smile.

"You know her?" asked Morgan.

"Yes, she helped work a child molestation case with us back in October. She's extraordinarily good with children. There's no way we would have gotten the information from them that she did. It's pretty fascinating to watch her work."

"That's right. The Bright Beginnings Daycare case," said Morgan, with a slightly defensive undertone.

Sergeant Teale regarded Derek. "I enjoyed getting to know her. I'll be glad to see her again."

Derek looked at him and Garcia said, "Down, boy."

Hotch cleared his throat and the attention turned to him. "Emily consults for us from time to time. Sergeant Teale, this is going to be slightly different than what we normally do. You were right to call us, but the likelihood that this unsub is still in the area is slim. We'll work up a profile and deliver it to your deputies, but I'm not sure that's how we're going to catch this guy."

"We're here to help you in whatever way we can, Agent Hotchner."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A deputy approached JJ and Emily at the nurses station. "You with the BAU?" JJ nodded and showed him her badge, "I'm Agent Jareau and this is Emily Prentiss. She's a profiling consultant helping us with this case." The deputy stuck out his hand to shake both of theirs, "Todd Marshall. I followed the ambulance here, drove the little girl and have been here ever since. Sarah got out of surgery about an hour ago and woke up about ten minutes ago. The doctor talked to her, but I didn't. The Sergeant told me I should wait for you two. Sarah was lucky, the wound was deep but it missed any major organs. She needed a blood transfusion, but the doctor said that she might even be able to go home tomorrow if she doesn't show any signs of infection. "

"Well that's good news. And Serena?" asked Emily.

"She's over in the nurses break room down the hall. I'll show you." He started walking and they followed. "She's a heavy sleeper. She woke up at the scene when the ambulance and police arrived, and was scared and started crying, but when I told her her mom was just hurt but we were going to the hospital to fix her up, she settled pretty quickly and fell back asleep. She's been asleep since then." Marshall opened the door and JJ and Emily looked in. Serena lay on her side on a couch, facing the door. She was a beautiful African American little girl with long lashes and a perfect rosebud mouth. Her hair was braided in rows and fell to her shoulders. She was wearing pink and white striped pajamas, slippers and a heavy coat. Marshall shut the door after a moment and said, "Do you want to try and talk to Sarah now? The doctor said it would be ok for you to try and talk to her for a few minutes when you got here."

"Yes, please," said JJ.

"Why don't you talk to her, Jayje. We won't be able to do a cognitive interview tonight, but she might be able to tell us something."

They followed Marshall down the hall a short way and he opened the door to a private hospital room. Sarah James stirred and opened her eyes. "Serena?" she mumbled worriedly.

JJ stepped towards the bed. "Serena's ok, Sarah. She's sleeping just down the hall. My name's Jennifer and I'm with the FBI. Can I ask you a few questions?"

Sarah blinked a few times and nodded. "I know you need your sleep," JJ continued, "But we need to know if you can tell us anything about the man you saw tonight. Anything at all."

"He had on a green jumpsuit. Like a mechanic wears," Sarah said groggily. "Black gloves. And a mask. Only his eyes were showing."

"Could you see the color of his eyes?"

"It was pretty dark." Sarah closed her eyes and opened them. "Hazel, I think. And he was caucasian. I remember when he stabbed me, he looked down. I remember thinking his skin was so pale against the black mask."

"That's good, Sarah. Very good. What about his height?"

"I'm 5'10" and he was one or two inches taller I think."

"Anything else you can think of?"

Sarah's eyes drooped and she blinked slowly. "No. Is he going to come after me?"

JJ touched Sarah gently on her hand. "I don't think so. We think he's probably far away from this area by now. But Deputy Marshall or another officer will stay right outside your door tonight, and Emily and I will come back in the morning to talk to you some more."

Sarah looked at JJ, her breathing increased and she became agitated. "What about Serena? I don't want her here if he comes after me. Please. I can't let anything to happen to her."

Emily stepped forward, "It's ok, Sarah. We can take her. We'll take her back to the police station for tonight and bring her back in the morning. Would that make you feel better?"

Sarah nodded and visibly calmed down. "Yes. Thank you."

"Ok," said Emily. "Get some sleep and we'll be back in the morning to talk some more."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Derek, Hotch and Penelope raised their eyebrows at JJ and Emily when they came into the police station, Emily carrying the sleeping little girl.

"Serena Ellis, I presume?" asked Derek softly.

Emily nodded. "Sarah was afraid the unsub would show up at the hospital. There's a couch in the interview room over there. Let me just lay her down and then JJ and I can tell you what we found out." She looked at Sergeant Teale and smiled, "Good to see you again, Mike."

She walked into the interview room and gently placed Serena on the couch. Serena looked at Emily drowsily. "It's ok, sweetie. You go back to sleep. I'm going to be right outside this room if you need me." Serena nodded and her eyes drifted shut. Emily walked back to where the team was standing. "She could sleep through an earthquake, I'm quite certain. I don't think she really knows what's going on."

"Let's gather," said Hotch. "Sergeant Teale, please join us. Reid and Rossi are driving back to the jet now and are with us on speaker phone. JJ, why don't you start?"

JJ nodded. "Sarah James is pretty certain the unsub is a white male about 5'11", possibly with hazel eyes. That's the best she could give us tonight. She's very groggy. We'll go back in the morning and do a cognitive interview to see if there are any other details we can gather."

"I got an initial report from the Fairfax coroner. Evidence of taser use again, and a puncture wound in the upper arm like the others, probably the same drug, but the tox screen isn't back yet," said Hotch. "The coroner also said it took Jessica longer to bleed out than the others, possibly because the cut is a little smaller, but also possibly because it was freezing cold. In any case, Jessica was still alive when the chest stabs were made. And Jessica fought back. Perhaps the drug amount was off. Whatever the reason, she at one point grabbed the blade of the knife. Her right hand was severely cut up."

"What we're figuring," Morgan said, "is that Sarah surprised the guy, he ran at her and stabbed her and then took off in a panic. His car was a bit up the road, just around a bend. The unsub stopped there, took off his jumpsuit, mask and gloves, poured gasoline on it and lit it up. He threw the knife and taser in the flames, too, and then drove off."

"Definitely did not want any trace evidence in his car," said Rossi. "We don't have much to add besides what we talked about earlier, Aaron. The guy was methodical and careful. We know how he got in though, and that can help add to the physical profile. He's fit, but probably slight. He scaled a seven foot fence. Footprints indicate a men's size 9. The husband couldn't give us anything."

"What I don't get," said Reid, "Is that this guy has been so careful up until tonight, and then he made a huge mistake. He didn't pull the spikes from the road after Jessica's tires blew. He left them there and Sarah's car hit them, too. That actually makes me think that he's familiar with the area, familiar enough that an additional car coming down that road at that time of night on a Sunday never even crossed his mind as a possibility. Maybe I'm reaching, but it's something to consider. What was Sarah doing out there anyway?"

"And why did the unsub let Sarah live?" asked JJ.

"He didn't know what Sarah did before coming down the embankment. Perhaps he thought that she'd already called someone about her car. When we were driving back from the hospital, Serena was partially awake. She said Sarah drives her around at night when she has a nightmare, to help her get back to sleep" said Emily. "Makes sense. She was in her pajamas. We can verify that tomorrow."

"It's almost 2:00 in the morning," said Hotch. "Let's get a little sleep and meet back here at 7:30 with fresh eyes. Garcia booked us rooms at the Holiday Inn Express a couple miles away. Reid and Rossi, fly into Dulles and head here. If you need a little extra time in the morning for sleep, take it."

Hotch disconnected the speaker phone and the team stood. "I'm going to just crash on the other couch in the interview room if that's ok," Emily said while looking at Sergeant Teale. "Of course," he replied. "I'll see you guys in the morning." Hotch nodded.

Derek reached out and placed a hand on her arm and whispered, "Do you want me to stay with you?"

Emily smiled at him, "No more room at the inn, Mr. Morgan. The couches are all used up. But thank you. Go get some sleep and I'll see you in a few hours."

Derek nodded at her a little warily. He wanted to say more but was aware of the eyes of Sergeant Teale on them. When Emily worked cases with the BAU, she was adamant that they remain very discrete.

His phone vibrated in his pocket as he was getting in the car. A text from Emily.

"Did you know that the most perfect man in the world asked me to marry him and I said yes?"

He smiled and wrote back. "Lucky guy."

"I'm the lucky one. Love you."

"Love you, too, Em."


	6. Chapter 6

Emily awoke to a gentle hand patting her face. She opened her eyes and Serena was standing over her. "Who are you?" she whispered.

Emily sat up and smiled warmly, "I'm Emily. Do you remember meeting me last night?" Serena shook her head.

"Well, you were very sleepy, so that's probably why." Emily glanced at her watch. 6:00am.

"Where's Mama Sarah? I remember she got hurt and I remember the ambulance."

"Your Mama Sarah is just fine. She got a bad cut, but the doctor fixed her up. She had to spend the night in the hospital, though. I'll bring you to see her in a little bit."

Serena nodded at her and then dropped her voice to a whisper again, "I have to go to the bathroom."

Emily leaned forward and whispered, "Me too." Serena smiled and Emily stood and took her hand, leading her out of the room and to the bathroom. When they came back down the hall, Emily glanced to make sure the crime board was turned away so Serena couldn't see it. Sergeant Teale walked in the door.

"Good morning, Mike. You're early," said Emily.

"Morning, Emily. I couldn't sleep." He looked at Serena. "We have an emergency closet that probably has some clothes in it that will fit Serena. Our front desk clerk keeps it well-stocked. It's in the women's locker room at the end of the hall. There are showers and clean towels, too."

Emily nodded. "Thanks."

Emily walked hand and hand with Serena back to the interview room and grabbed her ready bag, then headed down to the locker room. She spotted the emergency closet in the corner and opened it, surprised to find it well organized, with clothing by size. Often "emergency closet" meant large piles of clothing in random bags. "You look like you're a little smaller than my friend Henry. He wears a size 6." Emily pulled out a pair of jeans and two long sleeve t-shirts. "What do you think? Tinkerbell or plain purple?"

"But they're not mine. Is it ok?"

"Of course. These are here in case little girls like you need to borrow something to wear. But you don't have to wear them. Sometimes I have what I call a pajama day, and you could have one of those, too, if you want."

Serena looked at the shirts for a few seconds. "Tinkerbell."

"Perfect. I love Tink. She's so funny. In fact, did you know that I have a Tinkerbell game on my iPhone? I work with little kids a lot, so I have many fun games on there. Do you know how to use an iPhone?"

Serena smiled and nodded. "Great. So here's the plan. You get changed and then you can sit on this bench right here and play the game on my phone. I'm going to go in that shower right there and wash up really quickly. You'll be able to see my feet the whole time. Is that ok?"

"Sounds good to me, Emily." Emily laughed. "You're funny. You sound older than four years old."

Serena's eyes lit up and she leaned forward conspiratorially. "I'm almost five!"

Emily smiled, "I would have thought you were ten or something."

Serena giggled and started to change her clothing. When she was done, Emily handed her the iPhone with the game open and said, "Be back in a few minutes."

Emily washed her body quickly and changed into fresh clothes. She was emerging from the stall when Serena said, "You got a text. Someone named Derek Morgan says 'Good morning, beautiful.'"

Emily stared at her. "You read?"

Serena nodded. "My preschool teacher calls me precocious."

Emily smiled. "Do you know what that means?"

Serena laughed. "Yes, it means you think I'm ten when I'm really four. But almost five." Emily shook her head and laughed again. "You're pretty amazing, Serena Ellis. Give me a few minutes and we can go hunt up some breakfast."

Emily and Serena emerged from the locker room a few minutes later. Emily had hastily applied the bare minimum of makeup and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. As soon as she'd said 'breakfast' to Serena, the girl seemed ravenous, so she'd hurried her getting-ready process along. Emily was surprised to find Mike Teale standing in the hallway with a cup of coffee. "We've got about forty minutes until your team arrives, so I figured I'd get you guys some food. It's in the interview room. Dark roast drip with cream and one splenda, right?" he said while handing her the cup. Emily smiled and nodded and Mike continued, "I talked to our front desk clerk, Maureen, and she'll watch Serena while we all meet before you head back to the hospital. She's on her way in now."

"Thanks, Mike."

"No problem."

Emily entered the interview room and found a selection of bagels, muffins and fruit, along with a hot chocolate for Serena. Mike joined her at the table and smiled as Serena quickly dug into the food. "Emily can I use your iPhone? Can I watch a show, please? I saw you had some on there."

"Sure, Serena." Emily dug in her bag and got out her headphones and plugged them into her phone. Serena quickly picked an episode of _The Magic Schoolbus._" Emily settled back in her chair and took a sip of her coffee.

"Hey, Emily, can I ask you a question?" asked Mike.

"Of course. What's up?"

"Is Derek Morgan the one who gave you that rock on your finger?"

Emily opened her eyes wide and nodded. "Yes."

"I thought so. Why the big secret?"

"It's not. When I'm consulting for the BAU we just try to be discrete."

"But you didn't tell me about you two when you were here as a consultant and we went out to dinner and I spilled my guts out to you."

Emily huffed out a breath. "If we had that conversation today, I would have told you. When I met you, I'd just started consulting and I had just finished my first case with the BAU since I'd been back, which was a little awkward for me. Derek and I spent seven years hiding our relationship and I wasn't used to talking about it." She leaned forward and placed a hand on Mike's knee, "If I could go back, I'd tell you that hiding who you are and who you love eats at your soul until you wake up one morning and don't know who you are anymore. I'd tell you it's not worth it no matter what you tell yourself, because I know what that's like and it's a terribly dark and lonely place that's a bitch to climb out of."

Mike nodded and looked at Serena, seeing she was totally absorbed in her show, "Thank you, Emily. I hear you, I do. It's tough, as you know. I didn't mean to invade your privacy, I was only asking because I'm pretty certain Derek Morgan would have pissed in a circle around you to mark his territory once I mentioned I was looking forward to seeing you again. You might want to let him know you don't exactly have the anatomy I'm interested in."

Emily laughed, "I'll let him know. It would be fun to toy with him a bit, because I certainly owe him in that regard. But I just can't do that. I can't imagine it's really jealousy. It's just him getting the first dose of what it feels like for me to be here with the BAU, but for us not to be working together all of the time, and for him not to know everything I've done and who I've met at every moment. I'll talk to him."

Mike chuckled. "You're a really good person, Emily Prentiss. I'm glad to know you." He took a deep breath. "This case must hit a little close to home for you."

Emily shrugged. "A little. You've dealt with worse. I'm very good at compartmentalizing my work and my personal life, otherwise I'd never be able to do this job. But this one is a little harder, you're right." She looked at her watch. "I should probably use this time wisely and do a cognitive interview with Serena now that she's comfortable with me and I understand how well she communicates. You want to stay?"

Mike nodded. Emily stood and went over to Serena and took the earbuds from her ears. Serena looked at her.

"Hey sweet girl, I know you're liking your show and you can finish it in a bit, but I need to ask you a few questions. Is that ok?" Serena nodded and handed Emily the phone, which she slipped in her back pocket. She took Serena's hands and led her to the couch, settling them so they sat facing each other and holding hands.

"Serena, when I talk to kids, I first like us to get to know each other a little first. I play a game called most favorite and least favorite. It's easy. My least favorite thing is when I wake up in the morning and realize I'm out of coffee."

Serena smiled. "My least favorite thing is having my hair braided. I liked it before, but Mama Sarah says the braids are easier."

"It probably does make it easier to get ready in the mornings. Maybe when you're a little older and can take care of your own hair better, you'll get to take the braids out. Ok, my most favorite thing is reading in front of the fireplace on a cold night."

"My most favorite thing is reading, too! But it doesn't matter where. I like Ivy & Bean books the best."

"Wow, Serena. You are a good reader. Most kids don't read those until they're around eight. Impressive!"

Serena smiled.

"Ok, now, I'm wondering if you can close your eyes and think about last night." Serena promptly closed her eyes. "What did you and Mama Sarah have for dinner?"

"Pizza, with pepperoni and olives. My favorite."

"Yum, I love that, too. What did you do after dinner?"

"I got in my pajamas. Mama Sarah brought me my night time glass of milk and we read books in my bed. Then I brushed my teeth."

"That's good. What happened after that?"

"I went to bed. Seven fifteen is my bedtime. Next I remember Mama Sarah carrying me to the car because I had a nightmare. She always takes me in the car after a nightmare because it helps me fall asleep again."

"What was your nightmare about?"

Serena shrugged. "I don't know. I never remember them."

"Ok, what happened next, Serena? Do you remember being in the car? Can you think of a sound or smell?"

"I remember hearing a big pop and feeling the car go bump. Mama Sarah told me it was ok and to go back to sleep. Then I remember flashing lights and loud voices. It was cold. It smelled funny, like at a gas station. A nice man told me Mama Sarah was going to be ok and I fell back asleep. Hey...I remember you now, Emily. You told me you were going to take me someplace to sleep and there was another lady with you. Then I woke up this morning."

Serena opened her eyes. "Is that all?"

"Yes. You did a great job! Will you promise to tell me if you remember anything else?"

"Yes."

Emily shrugged at Mike. "I'm not surprised. She's young and she was asleep. Hopefully we can get more from Sarah this morning."

Emily turned her head and saw the team walking through the doors. They were a little early and Rossi and Reid were with them. Not surprising. Emily stood up and took Serena's hand. "Come meet my friends. Then a nice lady named Maureen is going to watch you for a little bit. After that, I'll take you to see Mama Sarah, ok?" Serena nodded.

The team all smiled at Serena when they saw her walking towards them. "Cognitive interview?" asked Hotch. Emily shook her head, "Nothing, sorry."

Derek crouched down on his knee and said, "Hi, Serena. It's nice to meet you. I'm Derek Morgan but you can call me Derek."

Serena giggled. "You're the one who called Emily beautiful. You sent a text. I saw it."

Derek looked up at Emily who laughed. "I didn't realize her reading capabilities when I gave her my phone to play with. I'm pretty sure this little one could give Spencer a run for his money."


	7. Chapter 7

The team gathered around the table with Sergeant Teale.

"The crime scene unit is back in full force where Jessica Elmwood was found. They're trying to see if they can find anything else now that it's light out. Garcia, you said you had something?"

"Yes, I woke up around 5:00 thinking about what Spencer said about casting our nets farther to potentially find victims 1, 2 and 5. Nothing. But then I thought maybe victims 1 and 2 wouldn't have the same M.O. if our unsub was just getting started. So I went back and I found a potential. In Syracuse, New York, back in 2006, Elise Ryan was found murdered in a park near her home, strangled. The case is still open and there were no suspects or leads. She was engaged to a David Robinson at the time. Don't have to be a genius to figure her hair color or his race, my friends. I'm looking for potential victim numero dos, but nothing so far. I have many murdered blondes unfortunately, but nothing that matches. I'll keep on it."

"Also, let's take the locations and see if we can find some commonality between events or conferences going on in each area in the month preceding the murders," said Reid. "I've been thinking about it and that seems like a possible place to start."

"OK," said Hotch. "Morgan, Rossi and I will head to the crime scene. Sergeant Teale, please join us. I also want to talk with Jessica's mother, to see if Jessica mentioned anyone following her that night. JJ, you go with Emily so she can do the cognitive interview with Sarah James. Reid, stay here and work with Garcia. Work the conference angle and see if we get any bites."

XXXXXXXXXX

Hotch dropped Morgan and Rossi off at the crime scene and continued with Sergeant Teale to Jessica's mother's house.

"It's strange that we're so close to town, yet there's really nothing out here. No houses or driveways visible, no street lights. There was a big moon last night, though," said Rossi.

A crime scene technician approached them. "BAU? I'm Kelly. We've been out here since sunrise, but we're not finding much. The burned remains of the clothing, along with the road spikes went off to be analyzed last night. Haven't found anything on that end yet and I doubt we will. Come on down around this way."

Morgan and Rossi followed her down the embankment and came to a stop in the center of an open area that was covered in dead, brown weeds. An area was marked off and a large pool of dried blood was on the ground. "Walk us through what you have," said Morgan.

Kelly nodded. "Ok, obviously this is where Jessica Elmwood's body was found. So far we've found two blood types. One is Jessica's and the other belongs to Sarah James, but only a few drops," she pointed, "Markers 2 and 3 there. Sarah was wearing a thick winter jacket, so she didn't lose a lot of blood on the ground at first. There's more up by her car."

Kelly turned and pointed at the road. "We think she came down there. That's directly across from her Highlander. She got to the bottom and saw the suspect on top of Jessica. He must have heard her, or maybe she screamed. He turned and ran towards her and stabbed her, then ran up to the road. Sarah walked towards Jessica and checked for a pulse. There was a trace amount of Sarah's blood on Jessica's shirt according to our labs. It's consistent with where her wound was if she were to get down on her knees and reach over to feel for Jessica's pulse on the opposite side of her neck from where she was cut. Sarah stood up and walked back up the embankment right here where we found more blood," Kelly pointed to markers 4 and 5."

Rossi and Morgan followed her up the embankment again and went to Sarah's car. "She got up the hill and unlocked her car. There was blood on her keys, which we sent off to the lab. I'm thinking she locked Serena in when she originally went to investigate the scream she heard. Anyway, she opened the door and reached for her phone, more blood on the front seat, and closed the door again. She called 911 and we think she then came to the back of her vehicle to wait, there's a blood smear on the back door. The first police officer on the scene found her passed out on the ground here."

"She was probably trying to not wake Serena, so she didn't want to talk on the phone while she was in the car," said Morgan.

"That could have saved her life; the cold possibly slowed her blood flow." said Kelly.

Hotch and Sergeant Teale pulled up to the scene and exited the vehicle.

"Anything?" asked Rossi as they approached.

"No," said Hotch. "And she didn't want to see us. She's a very bitter and racist woman. Those emotions were stronger than her sadness about Jessica being murdered. But she did tell us that Jessica didn't mention anything out of the ordinary last night."

"What do we have here?" asked Teale. "Anything new?"

"Kelly was just walking us through everything. So far nothing new. I texted JJ and asked her to record the cognitive interview. I want to see if Sarah's recollection matches what the crime scene techs found. It could be the discrepancies that lead us to a clue," said Morgan.

"Follow me and we can take a look at where the suspect burned his things," said Kelly.

They followed her about twenty yards up the road and around a sharp bend. Hotch looked back, "Jessica wouldn't have seen his car when she was coming up the road."

"No," said Kelly. "It's a short distance, but completely hidden. This is where we found the pile of burned clothing, obviously. There's really nothing to analyze. He poured gasoline on the pile, threw the container on top and set it ablaze. It burned fast and burned out. There wasn't much of a flame left when the police arrived on scene. The clothing is pretty much ash and shot for trace evidence. There was definitely a taser in there, but there's no way to trace that with what's left. Also, other plastic; a cell phone jammer we think. The knife was an older hunting weapon, fixed-blade, incredibly sharp. They're running it for evidence now but it's highly unlikely they'll find anything."

"So basically we're talking about a whole lot of nothing," said Rossi. "This guy almost gets caught, gets totally thrown off his game, and his crime scene is still perfect."

They headed back to the car and climbed in. "I could use some food," said Morgan. "Let's stop someplace on the way back to the station."

"There's quite a bit of food left over at the station if you want it. I brought in breakfast for Emily this morning and went overboard."

Derek turned in the car and gave him a hard look. Mike leaned forward in the back seat a bit and took a deep breath, "Did you know when Emily came in to do those interviews for us back in October, a Commonwealth Assistant Attorney, Andrew Wheaton, and I spent a good part of the day watching her do her work. It was evening when she finished for the day and she was in the interview room filling out paperwork. I went in and asked her if she wanted to grab a bite to eat. She said, 'That would be great. Will Andrew be joining us?' I stared at her and she smiled and said, 'You try very hard, but you both kind of light up when you look at each other. Nobody else notices, though.' Emily had spent the majority of the day in an interview room with different kids, and she still picked up on something that no one at work knows about." Mike paused and Derek was still looking at him. Mike winked at him, "I'm gay. Emily has more to worry about than you do."

Rossi started cracking up immediately and Hotch joined in. Morgan cracked a smile and huffed out a laugh before facing forward again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily and JJ walked down the hospital hallway with Serena. Emily had Sarah's purse and laptop with her. Neither had blood on them and they were cleared to be returned to Sarah. Both women were hoping it might put Sarah more at ease for the interview if she had her personal items back. Both knew that often helped.

Sarah James was sitting up in bed when JJ and Emily entered the hospital room with Serena. Serena smiled when she saw Sarah. "Mama!"

"Serena! It's so good to see you, baby." Sarah looked at Emily, "Can you lift her up so I can give her a hug?"

Emily nodded and set Sarah's purse on floor by the door and lifted the little girl, "Be careful, ok Serena? Your mama is still a little sore from her cut."

Serena gave Sarah a gentle hug.

"I already talked to Serena about needing to talk to you about last night, Sarah. There's a deputy outside the door that will take Serena while we talk, and after that you two can visit more with each other. The deputy will stay here and Serena can stay in your room. The doctor says you will probably be released this afternoon, provided everything is still going well. OK?"

Sarah nodded and Emily lifted Serena off the bed. "Ok, sweet girl. You go with Deputy Paul for a little bit. I told him about how you loved to read and did you know there's a library here? He's going to take you there and let you pick out some books to read today." Serena smiled and nodded at Emily and took Deputy Paul's hand. JJ closed the door behind them and pulled two chairs over near the bed.

"I've been thinking about it and I really don't remember anything that will help you, except what I told you last night."

Emily and JJ took their seats and Emily reached over to pat Sarah's hand. "You'd be surprised at what you can remember. I'm going to do what's called a cognitive interview, but first let's talk for a bit." Emily smiled, "Serena is a wonderful little girl. How long have you been her foster mother?"

"Since August. She used to live with her father in Arlington. He was killed. He was visiting his brother in DC, not a good neighborhood, and was caught in the middle of a gang-related drive-by shooting. I'd been finalized as a foster parent a couple of weeks before through Kinship House. It's a non-profit foster-adopt agency that has offices throughout Virginia and they contacted me thinking Serena and I would be a good fit. And we are. Her mother died during childbirth, but she obviously knew all about her from her father. That's where the 'Mama Sarah' thing came from. She felt more comfortable with that, but she's been dropping the 'Sarah' more and more. Her adoption is supposed to finalize next month." Sarah smiled at Emily and JJ, then looked down at Emily's hand and pointed to her engagement ring.

"Who's the lucky guy?"

Emily smiled, "His name is Derek. Serena said she had a nightmare last night and you drove her around to get her back to sleep."

"Yes. Serena goes to bed between 7:00 and 7:15, but a few times a week, she'll startle awake pretty early on with a nightmare. It's hard to get her to go back to sleep, so I started driving her around when that happens. It helps. I usually choose darker roads and drive for about thirty minutes. By then she's in a deep sleep and once that happens, she sleeps like a rock all night. Last night she fell right to sleep at 7:00, but woke up screaming around 7:20. I put her in the car and drove. That's how I ended up out there."

Emily nodded. "OK, I want you to go back to when your tires blew. Close your eyes…"

XXXXXXXXXXX

The team was all gathered back at the police station, listening to Sarah's cognitive interview. When it was over, Derek leaned back in his chair and sighed. "That's pretty much verbatim what the crime scene investigator told us. Good to know they're great at their job, but that doesn't leave us with much."

"The eyelashes," said JJ feebly. "She said that his eyes were hazel or green probably and the eyelashes where light."

"She was holding something back," said Emily. "When she was describing the unsub, she didn't give us everything. There's something else there."

"She could have been scared," said Mike.

"No. I was telling JJ about this in the car. I don't think she was intentionally not telling us something because the rest of her body language was genuine; it's a detail she couldn't quite grasp onto. That's why I like to rest a person's hand in mine when doing the interviews. When people are scared, they squeeze my hand. When they are holding something back or can't quite grab onto a detail, it's different. I can't quite describe it; it's like an undercurrent of energy."

"I may have to change your nickname to Spooky." said Garcia.

Emily smiled and shrugged. "I've done hundreds of cognitive interviews since September. It's just a nuance I picked up on when I started interviewing multiple victims of the same suspect. I should try again later this afternoon." Hotch nodded at her.

"How about you guys?" Rossi asked Reid and Garcia.

"The biggest needle in a haystack ever," said Garcia.

"Trade shows, more specifically, computer trade shows. There was one going on the week preceding the death of each of our victims in San Diego, Toronto and Durham, and also one in Syracuse preceding Elise Ryan's death. The problem is that people don't have to necessarily register for those," said Reid.

"People don't typically travel all over to trade shows, the point is that everything comes to them," said Rossi. "But the companies who have booths may send the same people."

"I'm trying to run that now," said Garcia while pointing to the laptop on her left. "The issue is that companies will send four or five people, sometimes more, but only list one person as the contact, usually the head of marketing, and that person does not always attend."

"Not here," Emily mumbled then spoke up. "There wasn't one here, right?" Reid shook his head, "Not recently."

"Remember what you said, Reid, about the person seeming more familiar with the road where Jessica was found? What if our unsub didn't need a trade show for his cover this time?" asked Emily.

"Garcia, any local companies that had booths at all of the trade shows?" asked Morgan.

Penelope typed. "One. Smithson Electric in Fairfax. Hang on." More rapid typing, "We are one hell of a team, my lovely family." Penelope turned her computer around. "Lee Harrison, Marketing Analyst for Smithson Electric, does the trade show circuit. Blonde hair, hazel eyes, 5'11" according to his driver's license."

"He lives in Fairfax," said Teale looking at the enlarged driver's license image on the screen.

"He also has a small mole near his right eye," said JJ. "That could be what Sarah couldn't remember or see clearly." Emily nodded, "Maybe."

Garcia pulled the computer back and kept typing.

"I don't know," interjected Hotch. "This level of planning would require more than a week, especially a week when someone was supposed to be working."

"Chief, you are a Facebookphobic. None of our victims were, though. You'd be surprised how much you could find out from a distance. Where and when someone drinks coffee, goes to the gym, gets off work, etc. All of our victims were over-sharers. Two had accounts that were locked down, Jessica being one of them, but if he friended them and they accepted, then he's in."

"Why would you friend someone you don't know?" asked JJ.

"Bottom line is people can be dumb," Garcia said as she typed, "But Jessica wasn't. She didn't just friend a random person, she friended Lee Harrison. Both of them graduated from Warrenton High School in '95, where they were voted cutest couple their senior year."

"We should call his work and see if he's there right now." said Mike excitedly.

"No need," said Garcia, "I'm in. He swiped his ID card to enter the building ten minutes ago."

"You're kind of scary," said Mike.

Garcia laughed. "No, I'm just good. Remember, Emily's the spooky one."

"I don't know," Morgan said while shaking his head. "It's unusual. This guy's pretty much in the clear if he only goes after random women away from his home, and then he attacks his high school girlfriend in his own backyard practically. He can't have known all of them. How many blonde women who marry black men could one man possibly know?"

"You're right, it's odd, but it's also looking possible," said Hotch. "We need to bring him in for questioning. It will take about thirty minutes to get there with lights and sirens. Emily, you know the Commonwealth Attorney in Fairfax?"

"Yes, Linda Horton. I've worked with her a few times."

"Call her. We don't have enough for a warrant right now, so we're going to have to hope Lee comes with us willingly for questioning, but we'll need her on standby if we need a warrant to search his house. Also, ask her if she can hook us up with an interview room. Relay the information to our phones.

Garcia, now that we have a suspect, see what other connections you can make that will help us during interrogation and see if any family of his still lives in Warrenton. Send anything you find to our tablets, including the pictures of the victims and the crime scenes. Rossi, Morgan and JJ, we'll go to Fairfax. JJ, I want you in on that initial interview. Two of us can go to his house if we get a warrant. Teale, I think you should stay here just so we don't get into a jurisdiction issue. You and Emily can investigate any local leads that surface. Reid, work with Garcia and let us know if you come up with something that would be useful in terms of an approach to take with this guy. Emily, do another cognitive interview on Sarah if you think it might help."

Everyone stood and started gathering files. Emily caught Derek's eye. This part was hard for her, he knew, being with the team but not being able to be part of the arrest, not being able to have Derek's back, even though this one didn't seem particularly dangerous. "I'll walk you out," she said to him.

They hung back from the group and walked next to each other. Emily smiled, "So, you're jealous of Mike, huh?" Derek laughed. "He already told me he's gay. I wasn't jealous; it was more territorial. It was just a dose of reality having our work lives collide for the first time. It was bound to happen sooner or later, it just reminded me that your work is totally separate from mine." She looked at him and raised her eyebrow and he continued, "I know you love your job and I know this is much better for us, but I still miss you being part of this team."

"I still miss it sometimes, too, but I love my life now." She leaned over to nudge her arm against his. "I love you." He nudged her back, "Love you, too. I have to go, and you have an attorney to call. Talk to you soon, Em."


	8. Chapter 8

_Sergeant Teale was on the news this morning talking about Jessica's murder and how the FBI is helping work on the case. He didn't mention the race connection or the other murders. Probably holding that back for now. I stared at his face and started to panic. Jessica was a mistake. I think I'm screwed. _

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily came back into the station and approached the table while on her phone. "Thank you LInda. I'll keep you posted if we need anything else."

She looked at Garcia, Reid and Mike, "They're set for an interview room in Fairfax. I'll text the info to them right now. Penelope, you can email Linda the pictures and anything else you think Hotch would want printed when they question Lee Harrison and Linda will get it ready. She's going to hook you up with a video feed so you and Reid can watch the interview from here. Here's her contact info," Emily set the business card on the table. "Find anything yet?"

"I'm running parameters right now. Other than Jessica, Lee Harrison doesn't seem to know the other women. I can tell you that he appears to be close to Jessica and Alex Elmwood, according to Facebook. He's in a lot of their pictures. Do you want to call Alex Elmwood, Em?"

Reid piped in, "We don't know what's going on with that angle yet. Let's let them get Lee Harrison in and then we can call Alex Elmwood. Also, the crime lab got to Jessica's car and sent us over a report. Nothing unusual except a GPS jammer in there. I'm thinking the unsub didn't want her found too soon. Which still doesn't match up to why he left the spiked wire in the road, by the way. That's still bugging me."

Emily nodded, "We know he spent more time with Jessica, long enough for the drugs in her system to metabolise and for her to fight back. Maybe she excited him more than the others because of the personal connection and he just got careless. Any possible interview angles around here? Friends or family of Lee's that we can question, Garcia?"

"His mother's dead and his dad moved to Florida a few years ago. No siblings. Most of his social activity seems to center in Fairfax. He's got an aunt at a nursing home in Gainesville, but that's it as far as family goes."

Emily pondered. "I could go talk to the aunt, unless you need me here. I'd rather do that than sit here and not be helpful. I could swing by and try another cognitive on Sarah after if she's ready."

Penelope smiled at her, "You always kick ass, and you're always my helpful Agent Prentiss, regardless of the missing badge and gun, just so you know."

"Penelope and I can run what Hotch needs us to run and I'll come up with an interview angle," said Reid. "Why don't you go talk to her, Emily? A personal perspective on Lee might help. We'll call if we need you back here."

Emily looked at the table for the keys to their last car. "Shit, they left us a car but took the keys with them."

Mike stood and pulled a set of keys from his pocket. "You can take my car, but you be careful. You know how I feel about that car."

Emily smiled, "Not a scratch, Mike. I promise." She took the keys from him, "I have my phone. Keep me posted."

XXXXXXX

Morgan and JJ pulled to a stop behind Hotch and Rossi in front of Smithson Electric. Morgan turned towards JJ, "I'll bet you a million that Hotch thought about it on the drive and is going to bring Rossi in there to get Lee Harrison. You and I are going to be the interview trump cards. Black and blonde."

"I won't bet against that. But I like Black and Blonde. Sounds like a killer rock band."

Hotch knocked on the car window, "Rossi and I will go in and get him. Hang tight."

JJ and Derek looked at each other and smiled. "Hey, Derek? How are you doing with this particular case? I've talked with Emily about it, but I don't think anyone's checked in with you."

Derek shrugged. "When it comes to me and Em, race is not something I think about until something reminds me that maybe I should. But then I remind myself that the people making me think about it are crazy and in the minority. I look at my life and I think about all of the really good things that have come to me in the past six months since we moved into the house. I think about walking into that reading nook and seeing Emily and Henry sleeping with facepaint on, or about how Hotch will now walk into our house sometimes and loosen his tie and grab a beer and plop on our couch without thinking twice, or how you and Will will just hang out and it turns into a great dinner together. In the past 24 hours, all I've thought is, 'I'm going to marry Emily Prentiss.' It's the life I always wanted, surrounded by really good people, and I have it. I choose to remember that when shit like this goes down."

JJ smiled and regarded him for a few moments, "Do you guys ever talk about kids? Whenever I bring it up with Emily, she kind of waves it off like 'why rock the boat?' You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I'm just curious. I see her with Henry and Jack, and then watching her with Serena…"

Derek pursed his lips for a second while looking at JJ. "You're her best friend, you know? I can't figure out if you're exactly who I should be talking to about this, or exactly who I shouldn't be talking to because I don't want to put you in an awkward position." He sighed and turned his head, leaning it against the headrest. "She doesn't want to have a baby. She's 44 and feels uncomfortable with the odds on that one. I get that. We talked about adoption once, a couple of months ago. Bottom line is that despite all of the evidence to the contrary, she's still afraid that actually having a child of her own is going to turn her into an ugly Mommy Dearest version of herself, like her mom was." He turned to look at JJ, "It's ridiculous. Emily doesn't have a cruel bone in her body."

JJ softly asked, "And you want a child?"

Derek turned his head to look out the window. "I want a family with Emily. If 'family' means us and you and the team and Henry and Jack and Will, then I'm ok with that."

JJ reached her hand out and put it on Derek's shoulder. "That's not really an answer. Look, I love Emily, and I get her fears and I get how you're trying to protect her surrounding this issue by maybe covering up what you really want. Emily told me something back last August when I was helping her unpack. She said that the thing that pushed her forward into leaving London was when you said that life was short and you didn't want to get to your end only being able to partially love her."

Derek turned his head back to face JJ. "And?"

"And, I think it's a good perspective. Regardless of what Emily's worries are, and regardless of how much you want to respect her feelings, the bottom line is if you both would regret it if you got to your end and didn't have kids, then maybe it's time to jump on board. Even if she needs a little nudge."

XXXXXXXXX

Rossi and Hotch approached the front receptionist and flashed their badges. "We need to speak with Lee Harrison."

"Lee? Lee Harrison is the last person in this building I'd expect anyone to ask about. He's on the fourth floor. Do you want me to page him down here, or do you want to go up?"

"We just have a few questions for him regarding a case. We'll go up."

She nodded, "I'll buzz you through to the elevators."

They rode the elevator and emerged on the fourth floor, easily finding Lee Harrison's office where they flashed their badges. His eyes were puffy and red-rimmed. "Lee Harrison?" asked Hotch.

Lee nodded. "Are you here to talk to me about Jessica? Anything I can do to help. I haven't slept since Alex called me last night and told me. I almost took a personal day today, but decided maybe a distraction would help. It's not helping."

"Yes, we're here about Jessica. We have a few questions. We've got an interview room set up over at the Commonwealth Attorney's office. Would you mind coming with us there?"

Lee stood, "Whatever you need."

XXXXXXXX

"Hey, Reid. Change of plans. Sarah called me and said she's being released, that she couldn't stand being there anymore and the doctor is allowing her to go home. I'm turning around and I'm going to drive her and Serena to their house and do the cognitive interview there. She'll be more comfortable. I still feel like there's something she hasn't remembered yet that might help. I can head to the nursing home after that," said Emily.

"Sounds good. They have Lee; he went willingly, eager to help. We have him up on the video feed now. His body language looks genuine, but that doesn't mean much. The team's gathering their files and finalizing their strategy, then Rossi's going to go in. Maybe Sarah has something in her head that can help make a more concrete identification. Maybe the mole," said Reid.

"I'll record the interview so it's all admissible. I'll keep you posted."

Emily pulled into the hospital parking lot and headed up to Sarah's room. When she opened the door, Serena lit up and ran to hug her legs. "Emily! Mama said you were taking us home. I'm so excited. Now I can show you my room!"

Emily laughed and gently put her hand on Serena's head, "I can't wait to see your room, Serena!"

Sarah was standing by the bed in scrubs. "One of the nurses let me have these. I always wanted to be a doctor," she said with a smile.

Emily smiled back, "It's good to see you standing. How are you feeling?"

"Good. Tired, but ok. Not too sore. I declined the dose of percocet earlier and opted for ibuprofen, harassed the doctor about going home, and when he saw I wasn't in too much pain without the drugs, he signed me out. I have strict instructions to take it easy and I have to come back tomorrow to be checked out, but I can go home. Thank God. I hate hospitals, actually."

"Then the doctor thing probably wouldn't have worked for you," Emily said with a chuckle. "Let me get you a wheelchair, though, just for the walk out, and then we can get you right home. I need to see if the hospital has a booster seat we can use for Serena. I don't have the car with the built-in one right now."

Serena carried the booster seat that was borrowed from a nurse who was on shift and Emily pushed Sarah in the wheelchair. When they got to the car Sarah laughed. "You don't seem like the muscle car type."

Emily looked at the restored '67 Camaro. "I didn't think I was, either, but it is fun to drive. I had to borrow it because my team took off with the keys to our car."

Emily got Sarah settled in the car and Serena buckled into the booster seat. Serena asked if she could finish her show from that morning and Emily handed her the iPhone and a pair of headphones. She got in the car and asked Sarah, "Where to?"

"Flint Hill. 211 West. I probably should have told you that on the phone when I asked you to drive me. It's about 25 minutes away."

"It's really no problem, Sarah."

"We used to live right here in town. My mom was at an acute care center here and I wanted to be close. But then she died and I got her house and I decided I wanted Serena to have more space, so we moved about a month ago."

"I'm sorry about your mom."

Sarah shrugged and nodded. "She had a stroke in February of last year. I really said goodbye to her back then. She was never the same after that."

Emily reach over and gently patted Sarah's shoulder. "Losing her still wasn't easy, I'm sure. What do you do? For work? You mentioned the doctor thing and I realized I never asked."

"I was a technical writer for years, and then I became a usability testing consultant. I travelled a lot to different companies, running user tests on new equipment. When I got Serena, I went back to technical writing. I do contract work and can do most of it from home. It works for us."

"You grew up around here?"

"In Flint Hill. But I commuted in for high school."

"Warrenton High School?"

Sarah laughed. "No. Public school was not something my mother would even consider. Harrington Academy."

"Oh. I was wondering if you may have crossed paths with the woman who was murdered last night. Jessica Elmwood. She grew up around here, too."

"No. I was going to ask you about that poor woman, but I'm having a hard time thinking about last night."

"Her maiden name was Pierce."

Sarah shook her head, "Sorry, no."

"The team is interviewing a potential suspect now. He looks like he might be the guy. I'll stay with you until we know more. If he is our guy, you're safe. If he's not, I can talk to Sergeant Teale about getting an officer at your house. I know you're worried, but so far your name isn't in the news. I think you're safe. We'll make sure you are."

"Thank you. Who is he?"

Emily shook her head. "We may need you to do a lineup so I can't tell you, I'm sorry."

"That's ok. I understand. I kind of freaked out last night. Thank you for taking Serena. She really likes you."

Emily smiled, "I really like her, too. She's a wonderful little girl and you've done a good job. She seems really happy."

"Thank you," Sarah sighed. "Ok, now I'm feeling tired. Is it ok if we stop talking? I know you want to do another interview with me, and we can but I just want to rest right now."

"Absolutely, Sarah. Whatever you need."

XXXXXXXXXX

Rossi entered the interview room and sat across the table from Lee Harrison.

"Hi, Lee. I can see you're sad about Jessica. I know you two dated in high school. Tell me about her," said Rossi softly.

"Jessica is my best friend. We broke up after high school. We both went away to different colleges, but after we both ended up in Fairfax and reconnected."

"And she was seeing Alex at that time?"

"They'd just started dating. She was really happy and I was happy for her. Her mother is very racist. She didn't approve of Alex at all. I became the person Jessica talked to about her mom, like when we were in high school. My mom was the same way, so I understood. Then I became friends with Alex, too. They're like family to me. Their girls are like my own kids."

JJ and Morgan walked into the interview room with files in their arms. "Agent Hotchner needs you, Agent Rossi," said JJ. "We'll take over for now."

"Lee, I'm Agent Morgan and this is Agent Jareau. Agent Rossi was needed in another matter so we're going to finish up this interview, ok?"

Lee didn't flinch. "Like I said, whatever you need."

"Where were you last night?" asked Morgan.

Lee startled. "You seriously don't think I had anything to do with this, do you?"

"Last night, around 7:00?" asked Morgan again.

"I was home. I got take out and watched college basketball. I went to sleep around 10:30pm."

JJ tilted a folder towards her face and opened it, "So here's the thing, Lee. We have a witness that places a Caucasian male with fair hair and hazel eyes at Jessica's murder last night. I know, you're thinking that's a needle in a haystack. But the problem is that we have a few other similar murders and they match up with times you were traveling for work in those areas."

Lee's eyes widened and his breathing tempo increased. "What!?"

Derek opened his folder and took out a picture of a smiling Mary Irwin and placed it in front of Lee, "Mary Irwin. Durham, North Carolina. Murdered on January 27th, 2015, when you were there for work from January 23rd to January 28th.

Derek picked up another picture and placed it on the table, "Jill Sherwood from Toronto, Canada. You flew into Toronto on May 20th, 2014 and flew back here on May 26th. Jill was murdered on May 24th."

Another picture slammed on the table, "Alison Lawson, San Diego. You flew in on April 3, 2014 and flew home on April 7th. Alison was murdered on April 5th."

"You're looking a little panicked there, Lee," said JJ. "Did you think we wouldn't connect you to these cases? Actually, we probably wouldn't have if you hadn't gone after Jessica. You never got over her did you?"

"This," Lee stuttered, "This is crazy. I don't know these women, I've never seen them before in my life!"

"Sure," said Morgan. "It's just a coincidence that you happened to be there when three white women married to black men were murdered, and then your precious Jessica who was married to Alex was murdered, too. You never got over Jessica, did you?"

Lee sat there and shook his head. "This has all been a horrible mistake. Jessica is my friend. I love her. But I care about Alex and the girls, too. I would never do this."

JJ leaned back and looked under the table, "Those feet look to be about a size 9, like the prints that were found at Mary Irwin's house. I've heard that the correlation between shoe size and penis size is a myth, but I don't know. I'm thinking in this case, it might be right."

Lee stood up and slammed his fist on the table. "I didn't do this!" he shouted.

JJ stood as well. "We think differently. Maybe you want to take a look at your work." She pulled out crime scene photos and laid them on the table. "You stabbed them in the chest consecutively, three for Allison, four for Jill, right up to seven for Jessica last night. After you slit their throats and they died, you raped them with your knife. We haven't found victims two and five yet, but we think we found your first. You hadn't gotten comfortable with a knife yet with your first one, right? You were in Syracuse for work back in 2006, and you found Elise Ryan and strangled her.

Lee was visibly shaking and crying, but gasped at the name. "Elise Ryan?"

"You know her?" asked Morgan.

Lee sunk back down in his chair. "No. I never met her. But I was supposed to. She was engaged to an old friend of mine from my high school days. I was in Syracuse for work and I was supposed to meet them for dinner, but she was murdered the night before we were supposed to meet." He pushed the crime scene photos away from him. "I would never do this."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Garcia and Reid looked at each other in the office where they were watching the interrogation on video feed with Teale, and Garcia started typing on her laptop. Her phone rang and she hit the answer button, "Already on it, Captain. David Robinson grew up in Boonsboro, Maryland, then went to Syracuse for college and got his Master's Degree in Physics. Smart guy. I pulled the police report on Elise's murder. He was never a suspect. He had an iron-clad alibi; sixty students listening to what I'm sure was a riveting lecture in their physics class at Onondaga Community College that evening attested to his whereabouts. I can't find any connections between him and Lee Harrison."

"Where did David Robinson go after that, Garcia?"

"I'll hit you back. Give me a few minutes."


	9. Chapter 9

Serena was eager to show Emily her room when they got to the house. She clasped onto Emily's hand and said, "Come on, Emily!"

Emily laughed at her enthusiasm, "Hang on one second, sweet girl." She turned to Sarah, "Are you doing ok? Do you need help with anything?"

Sarah smiled, "I'm ok. It's really not too bad. I'd rather take a little pain and feel normal, you know? I'm going to make some tea, and maybe some hot chocolate for you, Serena?"

Serena smiled and nodded. "Why don't you go see her room and visit and we can talk after."

"Ok, just holler if you need anything." Emily set her purse on the entryway table and looked down at Serena. "Let's go see that room of yours."

Sarah smiled at them as they climbed the stairs, then went to the kitchen to start making some tea and hot chocolate. When both were ready, she brought two mugs upstairs to Serena's room and found them on Serena's bed looking at a book of drawings.

"I'm sorry, I didn't ask you how you liked your tea or even if you wanted any," said Sarah.

"Don't worry about it."

Sarah handed Serena a small mug of hot chocolate and Serena smiled and said, "Thank you, Mama Sarah," then took a big gulp.

Sarah reached a hand out and touched Serena's cheek, "I love you, Serena." She turned her head to look at Emily, "There's more hot water downstairs if you want to help yourself. I think I'm going to go wash up a bit and change into regular clothes."

"Sounds good. Just come get me when you're ready and we can talk. Serena and I are just fine in here."

Sarah nodded and padded off down the hallway. A few moments later Emily could hear the sound of water being turned on.

Serena took another big gulp of her hot chocolate and Emily stood to look at the other treasures in Sarah's room. She surveyed a shelf full of stuffed animals. "You like bears, I see."

"Yes, my papa used to call me his little bear. He bought me almost all of my stuffed bears. He was Papa Bear and I was Baby Bear."

Emily turned to look at her, "I bet you miss your papa."

Serena's face fell, "Yes."

Emily sat next to the little girl and put her arm around her, resting her chin on the top of Serena's head. "I'm sorry, sweet girl."

Serena rested her head against Emily for a minute not saying anything, then she took a deep breath. "Sometimes I get sad, but I love Mama Sarah and Miss Amy."

Emily pulled her head back, "Who's Miss Amy?"

Serena smiled, "My preschool teacher. She also watches me sometimes when Mama has to work. That's her." Serena pointed to a picture on her dresser.

Emily stood and picked it up. It was Serena and a young woman standing next to a snowman, big smiles on their faces. "That is quite a snowman! Miss Amy looks nice."

"Yes, that was when Mama had to go away for work for a long time in January. Twelve days. But she said she'd never do it again because she missed me too much." Serena took another sip of her drink and set the mug down on her nightstand.

"All done?" asked Emily.

"Yes. It's a very small mug, Emily."

Emily chuckled and put the picture down. Serena picked up a book from her nightstand and started reading it while Emily surveyed the room a little more, looking at the books on her shelves. It was a nice space, a happy space. She heard the sound of water turning off from down the hall.

"Hey Serena, do you remember when we held hands and talked this morning at the police station?"

Serena looked up and nodded.

"Well in a few minutes I need to go do that with your Mama and I'm hoping you can do a good job staying in your room. We just need help figuring out how she got hurt last night and it's hard to do that when other people are listening. It won't take long. Is that ok?"

Serena's eyes drooped a bit and then she sat up straight and shook her head, like she was trying to clear her head. "Yes, I can do that. But Emily, I made you a promise to tell you if I remembered something and I just did."

Emily returned to the bed and sat down, placing her arm around Serena again. "What is it?"

Serena yawned and leaned her head against Emily's side, slowly closing and opening her eyes. "I woke up before the loud pop one time. It was cold. I think a car door was open. That's when I smelled the funny gas station smell. Then I woke up again during the pop."

Emily's heart started beating faster. If Serena wasn't confused, Sarah's story wasn't true at all. She looked down and saw Serena's eyes were closed now. Emily looked at the mug on the nightstand, dread filling her. She recalled Serena telling her this morning that she had her night time glass of milk before going to bed last night. She thought about how unbelievable sleepy she was the night before, not even waking up for but a few minutes when the ambulance and police arrived on scene. Breathing faster, Emily looked at the picture of Serena and Amy on the dresser again. January.

Emily shook the sleepy girl to rouse her, "Serena, do you remember where Mama Sarah went when you stayed with Amy for twelve days?"

Serena reached out a hand and gestured to the mirror over her dresser. "Raleigh," she mumbled.

She laid Serena on the bed, stood up and approached the mirror seeing the postcard tucked in the side. "Greetings from Raleigh." She took it out and flipped it over. _January 25, 2015, postmarked Durham._

_Fuck. _Emily's hand instinctively went to her hip to reach for a gun that wasn't there anymore.

Heart hammering, she turned and frantically searched the room for something to use as a weapon.

"Good, she's asleep."

Emily spun at the sound of Sarah's voice. She had one second to see the bat in Sarah's hand before it connected with the side of her head.

Emily felt one brief moment of blinding pain, then blackness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

JJ flipped through her files and found the name she was looking for, then looked at Lee. "How do you know David Robinson?"

Lee took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "We had a group, we called it the Underground Railroad." Lee shrugged, "Just a nickname we made up for it. Jessica and I started it. Both our families were incredibly racist, to the point that they didn't want us associating with black people. The summer before our Junior year, Jessica went away on a church retreat and met David. She told me he was from Boonsboro and about how his family was the same as ours, but in reverse; they didn't like David being overly friendly with white people, especially white women. Have you ever been to Boonsboro? Not exactly a great place to grow up when you could only be friends with about 3% of the population.

Jessica got the idea of forming a group for kids like us, who were growing up with racist parents we didn't agree with. We met once or twice a month at various places, mostly to smoke pot and complain about our parents. It was all word of mouth and it spread. Boonsboro's only about an hour away, and David would drive in. A lot of people came from far away, just friends of friends who heard and wanted to connect. There were about twenty regulars our Junior and Senior years."

Morgan leaned forward, "Any of those twenty regulars a fair-haired man about your height with hazel eyes?"

"One. Jeff Mitchell. But he died our freshman year of college."

"So basically, you're still good for this," said Morgan.

Lee shook his head. "I swear, I didn't do this."

"Let's walk through last night," said Morgan. "You knew Jessica visited her mother every Sunday night. Of course you did, you were best friends. You drove out there, you laid spikes in the road and waited."

"No," said Lee shaking his head.

"Her tires blew and she came out to look at what had happened. You grabbed her. You used your taser. You drugged her. You taped her mouth. You carried her down the embankment."

"No, no, no."

"You used your knife to cut open her shirt, then you started cutting her."

"NO!"

"You took longer with Jessica. Was it because she was your friend? She excited you so much that you got careless. You forgot about the spikes in the road and you took so long that the drugs in Jessica's system metabolized and she fought back."

Lee was crying, "No, I swear. Please stop."

"Another car came down the road. Did you realize that or where you too absorbed with Jessica? She surprised you, didn't she? You'd never been caught before. You'd never come close to being caught."

Morgan flipped Sarah's picture on the table.

"Sarah James," Lee whispered.

Morgan and JJ looked at each other, wide eyed.

"How do you know Sarah?"

"She was part of Underground Railroad, too. Her and David dated in high school and they went to Syracuse together. We were all friends. I haven't seen her since 2006." Lee paused, "Oh my god. The last time I saw her was when I visited her in Ithaca, when I was at that conference in Syracuse. I was the one who told her about Elise and David getting engaged."

JJ and Morgan stood in unison and walked out of the room, closing the door behind them. Hotch and Rossi were both standing in front of Hotch's phone on speaker, "I need you to run Sarah James like a possible unsub instead of a victim. Right now."

"Where's Emily?" asked Morgan. He leaned his face towards the phone and shouted, "Where's Emily?"

"She's with Sarah. She drove her and Serena home from the hospital about an hour ago," said Reid quietly. "But, Morgan, female serial murderers who attack other females are exceedingly rare. Add in the genital mutilation and you shrink those odds to almost non-existent."

"Her cognitive was solid, Morgan," said JJ.

"Sure, and Lee just happened to murder Jessica on a night when Sarah was randomly driving down the road. That's likely," said Morgan.

They heard a beep through the receiver, the sound of Garcia's parameters getting a hit, and Garcia started chanting, "Oh shit, oh shit. David Robinson moved to Oregon after Elise died. He married another blonde woman. Almost five years ago, that woman died giving birth to a daughter. David Robinson disappeared after that, changed his name. But I just found him. He changed his name to William Ellis. He was murdered in an unsolved gang-related shooting in DC. He left behind a daughter. Serena."

"Damn it. You have an address on Sarah?" asked Hotch.

"Yes, 111 Barter Street in Warrenton."

"It's ten minutes out," said Teale.

"Teale, you and Reid go. Be quiet about it. Emily's hopefully safe as long as Sarah doesn't think she's under suspicion. Garcia, get our phones connected so we can hear each other. We're heading back," Hotch turned to look at Linda Horton. "I need you to keep Lee here. They could have been working together. We'll be in touch."

They all started jogging towards the exit.

"Sir, I can't find Emily's phone on GPS. It's off or being blocked."

"What about the Suburban?" shouted Morgan.

"You guys took the keys. She borrowed Mike's car. It's a an older car, no GPS," Garcia whispered.

"Garcia, are the news crews still out front?" asked Hotch.

"A few."

"I need you to go out there. I need you to announce that we've arrested a suspect in connection to Jessica Elmwood's murder. I need you to be convincing that you're confident that this is our guy because of irrefutable evidence. Let's buy Emily some time."

"On it," said Garcia.

"How do you know Sarah will be watching?" asked JJ as they reached the building exit and their cars.

"She will," said Rossi. "She'll want to know if we arrested Lee and if she's in the clear."

Hotch and Rossi ran to the front doors of their car. Hotch looked at Morgan, who was visibly shaking. "Lights and sirens, as fast as we can. JJ, this probably goes without saying, but don't let him drive."


	10. Chapter 10

_Journal of Sarah James  
March 9, 2015 10:30am_

_Serena is completely absorbed in the book she got from the hospital library and I need to type and process. This journal calms me and right now I need to settle down. I was thankful Emily brought my laptop back. My heart has been racing since the cognitive interview. _

_Sergeant Teale was on the news this morning talking about Jessica's murder and how the FBI is helping work on the case. He didn't mention the race connection or the other murders. Probably holding that back for now. I stared at his face and started to panic. Jessica was a mistake. I think I'm screwed. _

_I knew it was a bad idea the moment I hatched my plan. Too risky. She was just too risky. Stronger than my others, an unpredictable setting, an unreliable plan. Yet, once I'd started, I couldn't stop myself. Not when it turned bad, not when I was nearly caught, not when I had to scramble for a back-up plan. Jessica Elmwood was the one who had to go. The most absolutely perfect one of all. I had to follow through and I did. But mistakes are like a house of cards in a windstorm, and my house is crumbling._

_My first mistake was that I decided to talk to Jessica. I wanted her to know exactly what was happening and why. She was my best, my last and my confessor. But I played with her a little too long. Long enough for the neuromuscular blocking drug to break down in her system. _

_First I sat on her upper thighs and slit her sweater open, then her bra. "Impressive, Jessica. Two kids and you still have the perfect figure. I'm sure Alex loves it." Her eyes shifted frantically. "Do you recognize my voice? It's been a long time, hasn't it?_

_I lined up my finger just under the center of her sternum and then slid it down a bit, pressing the tip of my knife into her skin to make a small puncture. "You are my seventh, so you will be stabbed seven times. I haven't stabbed them all, though. But I still keep count. It's important." _

_I ran the flat side of my knife up and down the smooth, white skin of her chest and stomach. "When David and I left for Syracuse after high school, I had our perfect life all planned out. We would go to college, then get married and start a family. Instead, his parents died in a car crash and David lost his way. He broke up with me our first year of graduate school and started dating Elise Ryan. I was angry, so angry, but I tried to move on with my life. I transferred to Ithaca College and eventually started working there and tried to forget that life with David. _

_Several years later, Lee called me. He'd gotten my number from my mother. It was the first time I'd talked with any of you in years. He was in Syracuse for work and wanted to get together for dinner. I invited him to drive to Ithaca for dinner one night. He told me about how you had married a man named Alex. Then he told me that David and Elise were engaged. He actually made a joke about it. About how my high school sweetheart was marrying a blonde white woman, and his blonde high school sweetheart was married to a black man. He acted like it was no big deal, a funny irony. I was enraged. The next night, I went to Syracuse and strangled Elise when she was walking through the park on her way home from work." _

_Jessica's eyes started shifting frantically again and her tears flowed freely. "She was number one." I took the knife and slowly pressed it into the puncture wound I'd made. Not too deep. I didn't want to kill her too soon. "Lee's been an important part of my plan because he needs to be punished too. He forgave you too easily. He became friends with Alex, he was like part of your family. You broke up with him and married a black man, that you didn't deserve by the way, and he just forgave you. He disgusts me. If anyone connects the dots, he'll take the blame for my killings. They'll never suspect me. Do you know how rare it is for a female serial killer to sexually mutilate her female victims? Virtually unheard of. But don't you worry, Jessica, you'll be gone before I get to that." I dropped my voice to a whisper, "At first I did it to throw anyone off my trail, just in case, but now I have to tell you it's kind of my favorite part, and I like to enjoy it in private." _

_I shifted backwards a bit on Jessica. Blood splatter was fine, but I couldn't let her blood soak through my jumpsuit. That just wouldn't do. "I thought Elise would be my only one, but then David had to go and get naughty again. He married a different blonde woman. What is it with you blondes? I found out through Facebook that she was pregnant. He was actually going to raise a child with that woman. Again I found myself full of rage. She ended up dying while giving birth, but I still count her as my number two. I would have killed her."_

_I moved my knife slightly to the left of my first cut and inserted it again and removed it. "After that some nosy reporter in Oregon wrote an article about David now having a dead fiance and a dead wife, both Caucasian blondes. He had an alibi for Elise's murder and there was no evidence of foul play with his wife's death, but the public scrutiny was too much. He deleted his social media accounts, erased himself, and disappeared with his daughter. I couldn't find him so I tried to get on with my life again._

_Last February my mother had a stroke. I left Ithaca and came home to be near her. Something about being home made me think of David again. And I thought about you and Lee. We all used to be such good friends, didn't we? I called Lee to ask if he knew where David was, but he said he hadn't heard from him in years, since his wife died. I found my rage surfacing again. I dreamed every night about how good it felt to strangle Elise Ryan. I decided I wanted to feel that power again."_

_I ran my gloved finger around the cuts I'd made in Jessica's skin. "I remember sitting in my mother's house, staring at my father's old hunting knife collection and warming to the idea of cutting. Neuromuscular blocking drugs were easy enough to steal from my mother's nursing home. I knew I didn't want to get caught, and I thought the best way would be to give the police a suspect if it ever came down to that. I recalled how I had killed Elise when Lee was in Syracuse for a trade show, and I knew he still had the same job. It was easy enough to learn that he'd be in San Diego at a trade show that April. I started my online search for the perfect woman. She was number three." _

_I inserted my knife again into Jessica and then lifted it and inserted it again. "Four was rather unremarkable. More of the same. I liked it, but I realized I wasn't getting what I wanted. What I was doing didn't punish David. I realized I wanted him dead. And then I realized that I wanted his daughter. I wanted to raise her properly, with the mother she always should have had. I focused my energy on finding David. I had track down that crack addict brother of his, but he gave me the information I wanted for a little money. David was in Arlington and had taken on his middle name and mother's maiden name. William Ellis. I applied to be a foster mother and my finalization moved quickly. A college-educated black woman with plenty of money and the ability to work from home, willing to take in a slightly older black child? I was golden. I knew as soon as I was finalized for a placement, things would move quickly. So then it was time for David to go. He always visited his brother on Thursday mornings after he dropped Serena off at preschool. _

_I put my knife into Jessica a fifth time. "I didn't kill him. I paid someone to do that. I waited until an article about the killing came out on the news that evening and called the social worker assigned to me to ask if William Ellis's sweet little girl needed a home. There was no other family except the drug-addict brother. Serena was at my house two days later. I didn't get to keep David, but since then I've become pretty good at getting whatever I want, don't you think, Jessica?"_

_I took the knife and tapped it on Jessica's right breast. "Don't worry, Jessica, we're almost done here. After I had Serena, I found myself able to focus on being a good mother. In many ways, I'd gotten that dream I wanted when David and I first left for college. A different version, of course, but it felt good. I had a part of him again. Then my mother died this past January, and for some reason all I could think about was killing again. So I left Serena with a sitter and went to Durham where I knew Lee would soon be at a trade show." _

_I inserted my knife a sixth time and removed it. "After poor Mary Irwin died, I found myself unsettled. It just wouldn't do for me to be a mother and continue killing. When I got the notification that Serena's adoption finalization would be in April, I decided I needed to end this. I really do love Serena. She's just up there in the car sleeping, you know. Benadryl; it knocks her out cold. The sitter cancelled at the last minute, but I just couldn't wait another week for your next dinner with your dear old racist mother."_

_I leaned forward and I tapped the knife on the tape covering Jessica's mouth and slid it down to her neck. "The best way to end this and make me stick to it this time would be to take away the person who could take the blame for my crimes. I thought about killing Lee, but I decided I'd rather kill you and call in a tip once your body was discovered, about how Lee never got over you marrying a black man even though he pretended to. About how he also knew David and Elise Ryan. Two birds with one stone, Lee and you. You're my last, Jessica. I'm glad you know the story." _

_Just as my knife was slicing through Jessica's artery, she jolted and screamed through the tape. Her hand came up and grabbed the knife blade. I pulled it away and she reached out to grab my wrist. She squeezed and squeezed, then brought her other hand over to help her. She was sloppy, but strong. She got the knife loose and into her own hands and jammed it into my side. I screamed and grabbed the handle of the knife and pulled it out. Jessica's strength was fading as a steady stream of blood pulsed from her neck. I wiped the knife on my jumpsuit and then quickly plunged the knife into her a seventh time and stood, thinking quickly. My blood was at the scene and I needed a doctor. I needed to be the perfect criminal and the frightened victim. _

_I grabbed the taser in my other hand and went up the embankment. I pulled the spiked chain from the side of the road and pulled it back across the pavement. I jogged to the back of my car. I stripped off my gloves, my mask, my jumpsuit, and my shoe covers, tossing them in a pile on the side of the road. I used my left forearm to put tight pressure on my wound. I was wearing a thick down jacket and a sweater. I needed to keep the blood inside my clothes right now and I needed to be quick. I unlocked the car and opened the trunk. I threw my knife and taser on top of the pile and grabbed the small container of emergency gasoline and the book of matches from my emergency kit. I poured the gasoline over the pile, threw the container on top and lit it ablaze. Serena stirred in her booster seat. Shit. "Go back to sleep, baby. It's ok."_

_I strengthened the pressure on my wound, cringing and moaning softly, closed the trunk, got in my car and drove in reverse over the spikes, then back forward in front of Jessica's car. Serena stirred again. "Shhh. We're ok baby. We're going to be just fine. Just a little bump in the road. Go back to sleep." I opened the driver's door with my right hand and got out. "Time to be the frightened victim, Sarah," I told myself, and I made my way down the embankment again, lifting my forearm away from my wound and placing my hand there, like someone would. I ran to Jessica, I touched her neck to feel for a pulse, I went back up the embankment, opened my car door, reached across my seat for my phone, closed the door again and dialed 911. I spoke to the operator while I went to the back of my car and leaned my body against it. Before I fainted, I remember thinking, "Sarah James, you are brilliant." _

_But not now. I am not brilliant. I made the biggest mistake of all. When Emily and Jennifer came last night, I was still groggy, still waking up from the anesthesia. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have let the idea of framing Lee go, described the eyes of a different, random person. Framing Lee hinged on an anonymous tip. But, now, once they find Lee, once my name comes into the story, the pieces will unravel and I will be caught. _

_Yes, I'm screwed. I'll die before I go to jail, that I can promise. Something Serena told me a bit ago about Emily made me think that maybe I could go out with a bang, if I get lucky and play my cards right. My life is over either way, so I think I'll give it a shot. _


	11. Chapter 11

They averaged 95 miles per hour down I-66, JJ following Hotch. It was before afternoon commuter hours and traffic was light. Cars pulled over for them and they barely had to tap their brakes. They drove in silence for the first ten miles, lost in thought, worried.

Garcia came back on the line. "I did the news conference. I'm running Sarah's travel itineraries now," she said softly.

"Her cognitive interview was solid, Derek. I'm so sorry," said JJ.

"It was solid because she did all of it," Rossi said over the speaker. "I don't think Lee is involved. If he was, Sarah would have given us a different physical description so her name wouldn't be brought into it, so we wouldn't find Lee at all. Jessica got hold of the knife and stabbed Sarah. She covered her tracks and then turned herself into a victim. We never saw it because there's no basis for a crime like this committed by a woman. Especially a woman with a sleeping child in her car…"

Over the line everyone could hear Hotch interrupt Rossi, "Dave. Don't."

JJ glanced at Derek and watched him turn his head towards the window.

Garcia was back, "Sarah had contract jobs in all of the areas near the murder sites around the right dates. She was in Raleigh in January. She was in Buffalo, NY when the Toronto murder occurred. In Carlsbad during the San Diego murder..." She trailed off. "Emily's a fighter, Derek."

"We're at the house," said Reid. "Mike's car isn't here, but the garage is closed."

"Assess. Be smart, Reid. You've got this." said Hotch, but his head was spinning scenarios and none of this looked good.

The speakers became eerily silent. Derek turned his head back towards JJ, tears streaming down his face. "I know what you've all already concluded. The news story was a nice idea in the moment, but Sarah James fucked up. Lee was her cover all along, but she never counted on getting stabbed last night. And when Emily and JJ went to see her right when she woke up from surgery, she was too out of it to realize she needed a different story. She's now realized that this will all come back to her. She's playing out her end game here." Derek paused to shake his head, tears turning to sobbing, "Is this even real? I can't lose her again."

JJ teared up herself and repeated Penelope's words. "Emily's a fighter."

"But she'd sacrifice herself for Serena," Derek said.

Hotch's voice came on the line, "No. Emily would bust her ass to find a way to save them both if it came to that, Derek."

Derek buried his face in his hands and they all drove in silence for a few more minutes.

"The house is clear," said Reid over the speaker. "It's completely empty. No one lives here."

"Garcia! Where?" Hotch yelled.

They could hear her typing frantically. Garcia sucked in a shaky breath, "Sarah's parents invested in real estate. Sarah's mom died in January and Sarah inherited three properties. Flint Mill, Marshall and Jeffersonton. Hang on." More typing before she came back on the line, "Two weeks ago Sarah set up a mail forward to the house in Flint Hill. Address coming to you now."

"Damn it, Penelope!" Derek yelled.

"Derek, everything pointed to the house in Warrenton. Sarah's driver's license, the address she gave the hospital when she was released. She was just a victim…"

"It's ok, Garcia, let's focus," said Hotch. "We're seven miles from Warrenton."

"We're on our way to Flint Hill. Twenty minutes." said Mike. "Fort Royal police could get there faster."

In the car, Rossi turned to Hotch and shook his head. The men understood each other. With every minute they had to process this case, reality was becoming clearer. The chances were slim enough as it was, and untrained small-town police officers busting into the house would not improve the odds. It wasn't worth the risk for the handful of minutes it would save them.

"If there's a unit close, have them do a quiet drive by to see if your car is there, Mike," said Hotch. "But that's all."

They heard Mike make the call to Fort Royal dispatch.

Rossi's personal cell buzzed in his pocket. A text from Reid, "If she already has Emily restrained, Sarah will kill her the second we bust in the door. We need a line of sight from outside if we can get it."

"I know," Rossi texted back. He showed his phone to Hotch, who nodded.

"Reid, we're going to be a few minutes behind you. You've got this. We'll take your lead," said Hotch as he pushed down on the accelerator.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily felt the rush of cold water on her face and came to, her eyes opening to a spinning and blurry room.

"Oh, there you are, Emily," said Sarah. "I was beginning to think this wasn't going to be any fun at all. Sorry about your head. That's not really my thing, but I didn't plan in advance for you and I found myself without any of my usual supplies."

Emily's eyes rested on Sarah. Actually, they rested on three Sarahs. She blinked, but couldn't focus her eyes. She remembered, though. Sarah was the unsub. That much she remembered. Her next thought was of Serena and she tried to look around the room.

"Serena's fine. I would never hurt her. I think she'll sleep through this whole thing if you don't make too much noise." said Sarah. "We're in the basement. I tore some of my stitches dragging you down two flights of stairs, but we're all locked up nice and tight down here, so that's best I think. You're probably going to be pretty bruised, but don't worry, you won't feel any pain soon. "

Emily became aware of her body. She was sitting in a chair. Her arms and feet were restrained. Ropes. Each arm was tied to the sides of the chair. Each ankle was tied to the legs. Her mouth was taped shut. Sarah was in a chair facing her. Emily was in excruciating pain. The room spun again and she closed her eyes.

"No, no, Emily. Stay awake. I'd like that better." Sarah slapped Emily's cheek and Emily opened her eyes again. "That's good. Let's play, shall we?"

Sarah got up and went to the wall to a display case of hunting knives. "Which knife should we use, Emily? Jessica's isn't a choice. I had to leave that behind last night. I've got Mary's, Jill's and Alison's knives here, but I'm thinking, Emily, that you deserve your very own." Sarah grabbed a knife with a pearl handle and came back to her chair. She leaned towards Emily and whispered, "What I'm about to do next is usually the part where the women start crying, just so you know."

Sarah grabbed the hem of Emily's sweater and sliced it open up the middle with her knife. Next she pulled forward on the center of Emily's bra and slipped the knife underneath, cutting it with ease. Sarah took her hand and parted the fabric of the sweater and bra away from Emily's body. "Derek must love this body. This is exciting. I've never done this without gloves before." Sarah looked a second more. "Oh, my, that's quite a scar." She tapped the flat part of her knife against the scar on Emily's abdomen. She leaned forward and whispered, "But it's nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you."

The reality of the situation pressed through Emily's fogginess and her heart rate accelerate.

Sarah took her index finger and ran it between Emily's breasts, stopping just below her sternum. "You are number eight." Sarah took the knife and made a small puncture on each side of her index finger. Tears pricked Emily's eyes, but she fought them back. She knew what happened, she'd read about the crime scenes, but she wouldn't give Sarah the satisfaction.

Sarah leaned back in her chair and looked at Emily, "There's a part of me that wants to tell you my story, but to be honest, I'm kind of tired of it. I told Jessica, I wrote it in my journal, and now I just want to get on with things. You see, I think we're almost out of time. When we left the hospital and you said there was a suspect in custody, I knew you had Lee. When you were unconscious, I turned on the news and a Penelope Garcia was saying how they had strong evidence that they had the right man in custody. I knew that had to be a lie. That's when my countdown started. I figure we have fifteen minutes, if I'm lucky."

Sarah leaned forward again and brought the knife to the side of Emily's face and lifted a wisp of her hair with it. "Serena told me about your Derek, about how he looked a lot like her daddy. You're not really my type with this dark hair, but times being what they are, you'll do. We'll play as long as we can and the second I hear that door up there open, I'll slit your throat. I'm good with that ending."

Adrenaline filled Emily's system. She knew Sarah was being truthful. If the team busted in here, Emily would bleed out before they could help her. Her only thought was of Derek. How she couldn't do that to him. Not again. She needed to help herself. She assessed her situation again. She was in an old wooden chair in a basement. Her hands and arms were tied tight to the sides and her ankles were strapped to the legs. But her feet were firmly on the ground.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Penelope sat in the office at the sheriff's station crying and shaking, not able to control her fear. The Fort Royal police department had confirmed that Mike's car was in the driveway of Sarah's house. _Come on, Emily, _she thought.

She listened to the speaker crackle and Reid spoke, "We're four blocks away."

"We're five minutes out," replied Hotch. "JJ, what do you think…"

"Derek, can you do this?" asked JJ loudly. "You might compromise her if you don't have yourself together." A pause. "Damn it, Derek, answer me! I will kick your ass out on the side of the road if you can't get it together. I mean it."

Penelope could hear Derek take a deep breath. "I can do this." Another breath and a more controlled voice. "I can do this," he repeated.

"Then reach back there and grab the vests and let's do this. Emily is going to be fine," said JJ.

Then she heard Reid's voice in a tone she'd never heard before. "Listen to me Mike, if Sarah has Emily restrained and she hears us coming, she will slit Emily's throat. We are looking for a clean shot. If you look in those windows and you see blood, you don't bust in the door. If you hear screaming, you don't bust in the door. That is last resort. We are looking for a clean shot on Sarah first. Are we clear?"

"Got it," said Mike firmly.

"We're pulling up," said Reid.

Penelope started rocking, listening to the silence.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sarah moved her knife and tapped the flat side against Emily's left nipple. "When they come for me, if you're already dead and I lay down my knife, do you think they'll arrest me? I don't. I think Derek will put a gun to my head and pull the trigger. I'm actually kind of looking forward to that." Sarah leaned back in her own chair and brought the knife to her lap, smiling.

_Fuck you, you crazy bitch, _Emily thought. With every ounce of strength and focus in her body, Emily leaned back in the chair and then lunged her torso forward. She screamed out from behind the tape as she lifted her body and the chair and propelled herself up on her toes, then she slammed back down with all of her strength.

The chair splintered. There were still pieces of wood attached to the ropes around Emily's limbs, where she now was sprawled on the ground, and her body was screaming in pain, but she could move.

Sarah stared at her in shock for one second and then lunged from her seat, the knife pointed at Emily. Emily lifted her legs and kicked Sarah's arms and the knife flew out of Sarah's hand. Sarah landed on top of Emily with a thud and punched and scratched anywhere she could, totally out of control. "You bitch!" she screamed.

Emily could feel her own strength waning. The adrenaline used to free herself had sapped her. Her body was just too tired and in too much pain. She could barely focus. She couldn't win a brawl. She turned her head to the left and saw her engagement ring glinting on her finger. _Derek. _Then she saw the chair leg. _Doyle. _The combined feelings of supreme love and ultimate hate surged in her and gave her the extra energy she needed. She stretched and grabbed the splintered chair leg on the ground and used every bit of strength she had left to drive it into Sarah's neck.

Sarah's body slumped on her instantly, her head settling on Emily's chest. Emily reached her hand up to rip the tape off her mouth and took shuddering breaths of air. The feeling of warm blood spilling on her stomach made her want to move. She shifted her body to the side and rolled out from under Sarah. She crawled her way to the far wall where she turned and slumped against it. Then the shaking started.

XXXXXXXX

Reid and Mike quietly climbed the steps up the porch and split up, each going around the sides of the house. There was blood on the interior staircase; both could see that, but it wasn't a lot. They came around to the rear of the house and headed down the back steps. Reid pointed and Mike nodded. They started circling the sides of the house, looking for basement windows.

Reid came to one first and saw a flash of red. Blood red. He dropped to his knees and could see Sarah laying on the floor in a puddle of blood, but he couldn't see Emily. Reid could hear the cars pulling up on the street and he glanced to the front of the house. The rest of the team was emerging.

Reid turned back to the basement window. Suddenly, Sarah's body rose from the ground, a piece of wood in her hand, reaching for the basement wall Reid couldn't see. Reid flung himself on his stomach and took aim, emptying his cylinder in Sarah's head. "You're clear" he shouted to the team. Then he called an ambulance.

XXXXXXXX

Hotch and Rossi entered the house first, followed by JJ and Mike. Derek, who had been in motion when they first arrived, froze when Reid started shooting then gave the clear signal. Now that Sarah was gone, he couldn't seem to propel himself to see what was in that house.

There were two potential victims in the house; Serena and Emily. One was likely in the basement, but the other could be anywhere.

Hotch and Rossi followed the trail of blood upstairs, and JJ and Mike surveyed the living room, following the trail through the kitchen to the basement door. Clear or not, both JJ and Mike had their weapons drawn as they opened the door and headed down to the basement.

XXXXXXXXXX

Reid ran to Morgan on the sidewalk and took his gun, not trusting that he could handle what he might or might not find in the house. No one had lain eye on Emily yet. Morgan didn't even seem to notice his gun was in Reid's hand. Reid grabbed his arm, "Come on, Morgan." Morgan didn't move.

The radio in Morgan and Reid's ears crackled, JJ's voice, "We've got Emily. The basement."

That propelled Derek into motion, and Reid put his hand on his arm and walked with him up and into the house.

XXXXXXXXXX

When JJ and Mike entered the basement, the first thing they were drawn to was Sarah James and the piece of wood in her neck, the splintered wood scattered around, the precise bullet holes in her forehead, and the blood. Their eyes scanned for Emily and JJ spotted her first, sitting against the wall under the window where Reid fired his weapon. Legs straight out in front of her, shirt and bra sliced open, chest exposed, and covered in blood. She was shaking. JJ ran and got there first. "We've got Emily. The basement," she said in her mic.

"Emily!" she shouted. JJ's hands felt and looked on Emily's torso, neck and chest, then she shifted Emily forward to feel her back. Emily's teeth were shattering, and her skin was so cold and clammy. Shock. Emily tried to say something, but JJ couldn't understand her. JJ stripped off her jacket and turned Emily's body to the side, laying Emily on her back with her head on the jacket. She reached forward and pulled the sides of Emily's sweater over her breasts.

"Not my blood," Emily chattered.

JJ rested her hand on Emily's face. "Ok, Em. You're ok. You're in shock, but you're ok."

Mike came over and JJ shouted, "Get her feet up. She's in shock."

JJ's hands traveled up and felt the congealed blood in Emily's hair and huge lump. At that moment the rest of the team came down the basement stairs, Morgan in the lead.

One look at Emily and Derek Morgan completely lost it. "No, no, no, not again," he cried and ran to Emily and slumped to his knees, searching her body for the blood source.

"It's not her blood, Derek," said JJ.

Morgan just kept crying and chanting, "No, this isn't happening. Not again."

Mike reached forward and grabbed Derek's shirt and shouted, "It's not her blood, man."

Derek snapped out of it and nodded. He placed one hand on Emily's chest, over her heart, to feel the beat of it and reassure himself. Tears were falling from his face. "I love you, Emily,"

Emily, teeth still chattering, reached her hand up to touch his cheek. "Love you, too. I'm ok," she stuttered. Her eyes shifted up to JJ, "Don't let Serena see any of this." Then Emily let the blackness consume her again.


	12. Chapter 12

JJ sat in the Fauquier Hospital ER waiting room with her hand on Derek's back. Neither said anything; they'd been sitting in almost complete silence for over an hour. JJ could feel Derek trembling, but he didn't want to talk.

Hotch and Rossi stayed with Mike and his deputies to process the scene, Garcia was working things from the computer angle, and Reid was with Serena. JJ was getting steady text updates from them. According to Garcia, Sarah James had detailed descriptions of all of her murders on her computer in a journal, including her plans to try and frame Lee Harrison. Bottom line, Sarah James was insane. She held it together for work, for social interactions, and around Serena.

One text from Garcia stated: _Sarah gave Serena benadryl to get her to sleep, then dyed her hair darker and braided it. She wrote that she told Serena it just looked darker in braids, that hair changed all the time, that braids were easier. But she goes on and on about how she absolutely had to make Serena look less like the biological mother. Sicko._

Serena obviously felt loved by Sarah, but Sarah's love for Serena was twisted and dark, even though she faked it well on the surface. Thankfully, according to Reid, Serena never woke up while they were at the house. He'd sat in her room with her while Emily and Sarah were carried out and taken from the scene, then carried Serena to an ambulance to check on her vitals, which were fine. She was at the hospital in Front Royal under observation for a bit, and her social worker from Arlington would arrive soon. That was going to one very confused and sad little girl.

Derek looked up when Hotch walked in the waiting room. "Rossi's still at the scene and Garcia is finishing up pulling the computer files and organizing them, but they'll be here soon. Reid is staying with Serena until the social worker arrives." Hotch set Emily's ready bag and purse on a chair and took a seat across from Derek.

JJ looked up and saw a doctor walking down the hall and into the waiting room, looking at her clipboard. "Derek Morgan?"

Derek stood up, "Is Emily ok?"

"I'm Dr. Stevens. Emily's still unconscious but she's stable. She has a concussion but no internal bleeding. Her brain activity is fine, her body is just coping with what happened today and is protecting itself with sleep, I think. She needed stitches on the side of her head. She has multiple bruises, especially on her back, so she's going to be sore for awhile."

Derek took a deep breath and let it out slowly, releasing some of the dread he'd been feeling for the past couple of hours. The doctor looked up and glanced at Hotch and JJ and then back at Derek, raising her eyebrows.

"They can hear anything you have to say," said Derek.

"You're her legal health care proxy, according to the paperwork someone faxed over when she was brought in," said Dr. Stevens.

_Thank you, Penelope. _Derek nodded at the doctor.

"Emily's blood pressure stabilized with the IV fluids in the ambulance and we didn't have to use epinephrine, which turned out to be a very good thing. We ran a full blood panel when she first got here. The results indicated that Emily is pregnant. I did an ultrasound and the fetus has a healthy heartbeat. She's about ten weeks along."

"What?" asked Derek softly.

Dr. Stevens continued, "I saw on the ultrasound that Emily has an IUD. IUD pregnancies can be potentially dangerous, often ectopic, but her pregnancy looks perfectly normal. Her chances of miscarrying are increased because of the IUD, but those chances decrease quite a bit if we remove it."

"She didn't want to get pregnant," Derek whispered.

The doctor looked at Derek and kindly said, "The fact is that she is. And I'd like your consent to remove the IUD. The removal process is a slight miscarriage risk as well, but overall it's the best medical option. Or you could wait until she wakes up and she can make the decision, but I can't predict when she'll be lucid enough to do that."

"I'll sign it. I don't know how she's going to feel about being pregnant, but she'd choose the best odds."

Dr. Stevens handed Derek a clipboard and Derek took it, signing the bottom of the form, and handed it back. The doctor nodded, "Give me about thirty minutes. I'll take care of the IUD and get Emily settled in a room, and then you can see her."

Derek turned around and JJ stood up and placed a hand on his arm. "Derek," she said softly.

He shook his head to silence her. He wanted to talk about the pregnancy, but he needed to sort through all the other emotions he was feeling about today first, so that he could be who Emily needed when she woke up. Derek stepped towards Emily's purse and reached in to grab her phone. "I need to get some air," he said and exited the waiting room. He walked quickly out the front doors of the hospital, sucked in a lungful of cool air and leaned against the hospital wall.

Derek turned on Emily's phone and waited for it to start up, then opened her contacts and scrolled for the number he was looking for: Julia Adams, Emily's therapist from London. He knew Emily still called her from time to time and they were more friends now than therapist and patient. Julia knew everything, and that's what he needed right now. It was almost 10:00pm in London. He hit the call button and listened to the phone ring two times.

"Emily?" Julia worriedly answered.

"No, this is Derek Morgan. Emily's ok. I think. She's stable." He took a deep breath, "She's going to be ok."

"What happened, Derek?"

Derek told Julia the events of the past twenty-four hours. He skipped the pregnancy part; that wasn't why he was calling and he didn't want to share that news for Emily.

"How traumatizing for both of you, Derek. I'm so very sorry," said Julia.

Derek's voice was thick with emotion. "It's probably not appropriate for me to be calling you to talk about this, but I need to get my head together because what I want to do right now is go into that hospital room, carry her out of here and take her someplace far away, where I can always keep an eye on her and she'd always be safe. And I know that's not going to work, acting like that, because she'd hate it. The only other way I've ever reacted to her coming this close to dying was to put my walls up and block her out. I think that's definitely not something I would do now. But I'm afraid I will."

"Whew," said Julia. "And here I thought you might want to talk about something complicated."

Derek couldn't help the small smile on his face. Emily always said Julia was funny and easy to talk to.

Julia continued, "First of all, don't worry about this not being appropriate. I'm happy to talk with you about anything. After you first came to visit Emily in London, she asked me for a release form that would allow me to share my notes and our conversations with you, should anything ever happen to her. She wanted to make sure that you knew just how hard she was working to try and get back to you."

Derek blinked back tears and whispered, "Oh."

"How you're feeling is perfectly understandable. I know Emily, and I feel like I know you pretty well through her. Emily accepted the idea that the world could be dangerous regardless of profession, but I'm thinking you've spent the past six months feeling relieved because you perceived her new job as safe. Now this happened and you're going to have to accept a different reality if you want to get through it. You could take Emily to the most remote corner of the world and keep your arms around her the whole time, and you'd still not be able to guarantee her safety."

Julia paused and Derek let her words sink in. "But what do I do?" he asked quietly.

"Be honest with her. If tomorrow or a week from now or a year from now you feel like grabbing her and running away to keep her safe, tell her immediately how you're feeling and then follow her lead. She'll understand your feelings and you two can talk it through. It will help keep you from actually acting over-protective, and help keep your walls down, I think. There's much more to it than just that, but it's a healthy starting point and a plan to grasp onto."

Derek nodded his head. "Thank you."

"You are most welcome. You're both going to be ok, Derek. Believe that."

"Thank you again. I should get back."

"Of course. Have Emily call me when she's feeling up to it. And you feel free to call me if you need to, too."

He disconnected the call and stood there for another few minutes, finally letting his thoughts drift to the pregnancy. He didn't know what Emily would think and he was worried and elated at the same time. His own phone vibrated. A text from JJ: _The doctor's back_.

Derek jogged through the doors and back to the small, private waiting area. JJ looked at him, concerned, and mouthed, "You ok?" Derek nodded and walked up to Dr. Stevens.

The doctor smiled at Derek and said, "Emily came around when I was removing the IUD and asked me what the hell I was doing. I told her she was pregnant and after initially looking like she might faint again, she smiled and asked if you knew. Then she told me if I put anything worse than a Category B drug in her system, she would end me. She sounded serious." Dr. Stevens laughed lightly.

JJ laughed, too. "That sounds like our Emily."

Dr. Stevens continued, "We briefly discussed some possible prescription pain medicines that would be safe for the baby and her concussion, and she said if she could just get some Tylenol and an ice pack for her head, she'd live." Dr. Stevens chuckled again and shook her head. "She's a tough one. I did convince her that a catheter would probably be easier for her for the night."

Derek stared at the doctor and blinked back tears. "She smiled when you told her?"

"She did. You know, when I initially saw the blood test results, and I considered what she'd been through today and her age, I honestly didn't expect to see a heartbeat on the ultrasound. And then I saw the IUD and I was even more surprised that everything looked so good." Dr. Stevens opened her folder and took out a picture. "Emily's still pretty groggy and in and out. I want to keep her under observation for 24 hours at least, and I put in a call to obstetrics so they could send someone down to see her in the morning. The nurse is getting her settled in room 316 and you can go up. Here you go." She handed Derek the picture and patted him on the shoulder, "Congratulations."

Hotch and JJ gathered around Derek and the ultrasound picture. There wasn't all that much to see at this point, but it was definitely a baby. Their baby. Derek couldn't believe it.

JJ put an arm around Derek's waist and squeezed. "Wow," she said softly.

Hotch put his hand on Derek's back. "That baby is a fighter, just like Emily."


	13. Chapter 13

Derek slowly opened the door to Emily's semi-dark hospital room and walked softly towards the bed. She was lying on her left side, facing the door, her eyes closed. She had some slight bruising on her face and arms, dark circles under her eyes, and he could see her hair pulled back away from a bandage covering the area where they'd had to shave her hair to stitch her up. She had an IV and blood pressure cuff on her right arm and a was hooked up to a heart monitor. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

He reached out to place his hand gently on top of hers and she opened her eyes to look at him. "Hey, Em," he whispered.

"Derek," She sighed happily. She carefully shifted back a bit on the bed and patted the empty area.

"I don't want to hurt you," said Derek.

"You won't."

Derek released the safety railing on the side of the bed and carefully laid himself on his side facing her. She reached up to place her hand on his chest.

"Serena?" Emily asked.

"She's OK. She didn't see anything. Spencer stayed with her until the social worker arrived."

Emily sighed in relief and studied Derek's face for a few seconds. "I'm so sorry you had to go through something like this again."

Derek's eyes brimmed with tears that spilled over and down his cheeks. "That was way too close, Em."

Emily reached up, placed her hand on his cheek and brushed away his tears. "Every morning you leave for work or when you're on a case, I remind myself to have faith in the fact that you're going to fight hard to come home safely. I need you to have the same faith in me. I had to fight hard today, and I did, and the thing that gave me strength was the idea of coming back to you. All we can do is choose to be surrounded by people we love and let them give us strength, live our lives doing what we love, and have faith, Derek."

Derek nodded and leaned forward to gently brush his lips against hers. He placed feather-light fingertips on Emily's forehead, running them down her cheek and passing his thumb gently over her lips. He moved his hand to her shoulder and carefully ran it down her ribs, coming to a rest with the palm of his hand over her pelvis.

Emily's eyes filled with tears then, and she took her hand off his cheek and moved it to cover his.

"How are you feeling about this, Em?"

She slowly whispered out emotions, "Happy...terrified...hopeful...worried...in love." She paused and smiled at him. "Happy."

Derek returned the smile, "We're going to be so good at this, Emily. You're going to be amazing, and I'm going to fall more in love with you every day watching you be a mother."

Emily closed her eyes briefly, a content smile on her lips, before opening them again. "I spent so long being scared of the idea of being a parent that I convinced myself I didn't want to be one. But about five seconds after that doctor said 'pregnant' I couldn't imagine wanting anything more, even though I'm scared as hell. _We_ are going to be amazing."

"I am so in love with you, Emily Prentiss."

"I love you, Derek, so much." Her eyes dropped shut and she struggled to open them. "I need to sleep now."

"Do you want me to move?"

"No. Stay right like this. You're the best pain medicine there is."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a night of dozing for both of them. Emily was in some pain, but she could manage it; it wasn't the worst she'd ever had. She floated in and out of sleep and every time she stirred, Derek's eyes found hers. He never changed his position, he never moved his hand.

The first time a nurse came in to check on her, JJ followed her in. When the nurse shook her head at Derek laying in the bed and said he should really be on the couch, JJ asked her to step outside in the hallway. Emily and Derek sleepily grinned at each other when they heard the muffled, fierce tone in JJ's voice from the other side of the door.

"Does she know?" asked Emily quietly.

"Yes."

After that there was no mention of Derek being on the bed again, but every time a nurse came in to check on her, JJ was right there. At one point she heard Derek say sweetly, "Jayje, take the couch. I'm not going to use it. Get some sleep."

Dawn came, and with it more alertness and a clearer head. Emily carefully shifted her body and stretched out her back. She felt OK, as long as she didn't move her head much. She was sore, but it wasn't as bad as she'd originally feared. She opened her eyes to find Derek staring at her.

"Hey, Em," he whispered. Derek took his hand and moved it gently to her cheek and whispered, "I didn't want to wake you by moving, but I have to go to the bathroom."

Emily's eyes opened wide and she gasped in a little breath, blinking quickly to hold back the sudden tears that stung her eyes.

Derek looked up and saw her heart rate pick up on the monitor. "What is it?"

"It's fine. It's nothing. I was just thinking that it was similar to how Serena woke me up yesterday morning and I couldn't believe it was just yesterday. It was just yesterday, right?"

Derek searched her face for a moment and nodded, "Yes. It's Tuesday morning."

Emily blinked a few more times. "I'm really fine. Go to the bathroom, stretch, whatever you need."

Derek shifted his body off the bed and stood. He looked over his shoulder and then back at Emily with a grin. He moved so Emily could see JJ asleep on the couch in the corner.

"I think you'll be in good hands while I'm gone," said Derek with a smirk. "She looks innocent, but she's pretty lethal when she needs to be."

"Exactly," JJ mumbled. She opened her eyes and smiled at Emily before turning her attention to Derek. "There are five people in that waiting room who'd like an update, I'm sure."

"They stayed all night?" asked Emily quietly.

"They all went back to the hotel for awhile, and then trickled back here in ones and twos because they couldn't sleep. Even Mike. I think they'll be ok once they can lay eyes on you."

Emily's eyes welled up. "Do they all know?"

JJ nodded her head slowly. "I'm sorry. Hotch and I tried to let it be your news to share, but they all came into the emergency room pretty quickly after Derek headed upstairs to see you. They saw us trying to hide something and thought the worst."

"It's ok, JJ. Really. I'm glad they know," said Emily.

JJ sat up and laughed. "Their reaction was pretty epic. I might need to pull the hospital security tapes just so you can see." She spread her arms out wide and lowered her voice: "In a stunning upset, _Emily's Pregnant_ crushes _Sarah is Psycho_ by a landslide in Shocking News of the Day."

All three of them started laughing and Derek asked, "When did you to come up with that line?"

"Sometime between my encounter with Nurse Ratchet and you offering me the couch. I've been kind of dying to use it."

Derek walked to the couch and bent over to drop a kiss on JJ's head. "Thank you for being you, JJ." He turned back to Emily, "I'll go check in with them. Is it ok if they come in?"

Emily nodded at him and watched him walk out of the room, then looked back at JJ.

"Promise me Serena is really safe?"

JJ got up from the couch and came to sit on the edge of Emily's bed, gently placing a hand on her arm. "She's safe. She never really woke up until several hours later. In her own twisted way, I think Sarah was trying to protect her from seeing or hearing anything by dragging you down two flights of stairs, though I'm sure your ass isn't appreciating that this morning."

Emily smiled at JJ but then her eyes filled with tears again. "I'm forty-four years old, JJ. I'm so worried. I didn't think it was possible to be this happy and this worried at the same time. I'm afraid of miscarriage, and I'm afraid something might be wrong with the baby…" she trailed off while looking down.

JJ placed her hand on Emily's chin and raised Emily's face to look in her eyes. "You know what I think? I think you've got a baby in there that's made it this far against the odds, and I think that baby is in it for the long haul. I think he or she is going to come into this world kicking ass and taking names. You've got an amazing adventure in front of you, my friend, and I can't wait to be part of it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The team, along with Mike, quietly came into the room to check on her and offer congratulations. They were careful with Emily, not wanting to hurt her or be overwhelming, but seemed relieved to be able to gently touch her arm, to see her eyes, to hear her talking.

Mike left quickly, needing to get to work, but said he'd come back later in the day.

They all talked for a few minutes and then Hotch pulled a chair over to the bed and placed a folder in his lap. Everyone quieted.

Hotch looked at Emily. "I made a decision at the scene yesterday to change a few facts in order to protect you and Serena and dissipate a media circus. I had you sent to this hospital, I had Serena taken to the Fort Royal hospital, and I had Sarah's body sent to the Fairfax morgue. The team wanted to follow you to the hospital immediately, but I had Rossi and Garcia stay on task to speed the paperwork trail along. Garcia made your contract paperwork for the FBI on this case disappear. Mike Teale filed the paperwork on his end. You were officially working for the Warrenton County Sheriff's Office on this case. There will be fewer inquiries about you if you're tied to them rather than the FBI.

He paused and took a breath. "Officially, Reid killed Sarah. You were acting in self-defense when you disabled her, she went to attack you again, and Reid shot at her to prevent that from happening. Truthfully, she'd lost enough blood that her being able to raise up was a last ditch effort. She probably would have collapsed again and bled out before getting to you. We'd have to file different paperwork if you'd been the one to kill her and your name would likely have gotten out. So, I'm thankful Reid was there and you are now an anonymous victim for whom we need to protect the privacy."

Hotch smiled at Emily, "I'm quite certain JJ made hospital's Chief of Staff feel like the entirety of Quantico would come down on him if any staff member in this hospital leaked your name to the press. Serena's name is safe. She's a minor and she's back in Falls Church at Kinship House now. The only other person who seems to have known her well was her preschool teacher, and I spoke with her yesterday. She's young and she's sad and shocked, but she cares about Serena and won't leak her name either.

Sarah confessed to everything in a journal. Every detail is there. Garcia gathered and organized it with the case files on the other victims. Rossi went through the scene last night and wrote the majority of your official statement. I'm positive it's accurate; I just need you to add any dialogue and sign your name. While I'm sure the interest in Sarah James will remain high, I think the interest in you will disappear quickly."

He reached forward and placed his hand on hers, "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that, Emily. None of us ever thought of Sarah James as anything other than a victim and a witness. She created the perfect crime scene to make it look that way. The next time you're interviewing a victim and you feel that strange undercurrent of energy, I'll definitely dig deeper on that person immediately."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A small, bland breakfast came at 8:00am and Emily was able to sit up in bed and eat without getting dizzy or nauseous. She asked for more and JJ smiled and left to go track down some better food for her. The team, minus Derek, left shortly after. They needed to check out of the hotel and get back to Quantico to finish up the paperwork on the case.

The doctor on call came in at 9:00am and assessed Emily, surprised at how well she was doing. "I bounce," she told him. He allowed her to get disconnected from the IV and monitors and catheter. He told her someone from obstetrics would be down around 1:00. She was shaky on her feet at first, she was sore, she had a dull headache, but she could stand.

Derek hovered around her on a couple of successful trips to the bathroom. On the first trip, she looked at her face in the mirror before brushing her teeth. "Well, I look like complete shit." She turned to Derek and smiled, "But I really don't care at the moment."

A couple of hours later, Emily asked about a shower and the doctor said yes to washing her body, but that she couldn't get her hair wet or wash it quite yet because of the stitches; tomorrow he said. Wanting nothing more than to get soap on some part of her body, she happily accepted the conditions.

Derek retrieved her pajamas, body wash and an elastic tie for her hair out of her ready bag. She put her hair up in a sloppy high ponytail, making a face at the feel of it - the hair definitely needed washing. Derek helped her out of her hospital gown and gasped at the full array of bruises on her body. She told him it wasn't as bad as it looked, because it really wasn't. He didn't say anything, but kept one hand on her hip and opened the shower door to turn on the water.

She looked closely at his face and saw the deep concern and worry. She knew he didn't want to let go of her, not yet. Emily turned to survey the size of the shower and then looked back at him with a sweet smile, "You coming in? I need someone to wash my back."

In the shower, Derek stood behind Emily with a hand on her waist while she washed her face and rinsed it. She handed the body wash to him over her shoulder and said, "Your turn." He ran soapy hands gently over her back, trailing kisses on her neck and shoulders. When he turned her around, his eyes were immediately drawn to the two small cuts on her chest that were already scabbed over. Emily leaned forward and kissed him. "I'm here. I'm OK," she whispered.

Derek nodded and took in a deep breath. When her upper body was washed, he sunk to his knees and washed her legs, then ran his hands up to her hips and pressed his lips to her stomach. "I still can't believe it, Em."

Emily put both of her hands gently on his head and whispered, "Me either."

After the shower, Derek helped her into her clean pajamas and got himself back into his clothes. They emerged from the bathroom to find JJ sitting on the couch, with a couple of bags on either side of her.

She smiled at them. "I called the doctor and he said you'd probably be released this evening. When I told Hotch, he said that my official job for today was to get you both home safely. I went and bought you some comfortable clothes for the drive home, Em, and I brought us all a good lunch. I have one of the Bureau vehicles. I figure I can turn on the lights on the drive home and get you there faster. Just don't tell anybody."

They ate their lunch and shortly after a spunky looking woman in her mid-thirties opened the door, wheeling a monitor on a cart in front of her. JJ stood up and left the room to give them privacy.

The doctor looked at Emily and Derek and smiled, "I'm Dr. Robie. I hear you two had just a little bit of crazy day yesterday."

Both Emily and Derek laughed, feeling comfortable with her immediately.

The doctor plugged in the monitor and shook their hands before settling her eyes on Emily. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm OK. A little sore and a moderate headache, but I'm good. Happy. Nervous. Worried about my age." said Emily. Derek reached to take her hand.

Dr. Robie patted her shoulder. "We can get to your concerns about your age in a bit. I will tell you that my mom had me when she was forty-three and I'm almost completely normal." She winked at them and they smiled back.

The doctor wheeled her cart around to place the screen at an angle facing Emily. "I want to do this again and just see how things look. Dr. Stevens is great, but the uterus is kind of my specialty." She smiled, "It will be much nicer to be conscious for this and together, right?"

Derek whispered, "Definitely."

Emily's heart started fluttering quickly. She squeezed Derek's hand and he squeezed hers back, leaning himself over onto the bed so his head was gently touching hers. Dr. Robie pulled the waistband of Emily's loose pajama pants down below her hips and raised up her t-shirt. Emily had the sensation that this was happening to different person's body as the doctor flipped on the monitor and squeezed the cool gel on her. It didn't feel real. Dr. Robie picked up the wand and pressed it against Emily. She could feel Derek's nervous energy rolling off him as they looked at the grayness on the screen.

And then, suddenly, it all became very real. The image of baby with a head and discernible legs. Dr. Robie moved her hand to the tray on the cart and they could see a line moving on the screen. "You ready for this?" she asked. And then the whoosh and thumping of a fast heartbeat filled the room. Emily didn't know whose tears were whose as Derek's were dripping down onto her face, their hands clenched together.

"165 beats per minute. Perfect," Dr. Robie said. "I'm going to have to move this now and do some measurements." They watched as the sound went silent and she clicked on the screen over and over, making calculations and measurement they didn't understand. Sometimes the baby would float out of view, and they'd both deflate a little emotionally, but then it would come back into view and their excitement would peak again.

"Nine weeks, four days," she said. "That date's tracked starting on the first day of your last period, which you didn't have because of your IUD." Dr. Robie paused and thought, "That would have been New Year's Day. I'd say 2015 is going to be your year."

Derek tore his eyes away from the screen and turned to kiss Emily and then leaned his forehead against hers. "I love you," they whispered at nearly the same time.

"Everything looks perfect. Want to see something that will really blow your mind?" Dr. Robie asked.

Emily huffed out a gentle laugh. "There's more?"

Dr. Robie nodded. "Cough," she said.

Emily looked at the doctor for a second and gave a few good hard coughs. And then they saw the baby flailing about, arms and legs moving.

"Kicking ass and taking names," said Emily through her tears.

"What?" asked Derek.

"It's what JJ said. She said she knew this baby was going to come into the world kicking ass and taking names."

Derek laughed, "With us as the parents, that baby couldn't possibly do anything else, Em."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily sat on the edge of her hospital bed waiting, a file folder in her lap. JJ had gone to put their things in the car and pull it around front, and Derek was signing paperwork to get her out of there. Emily glanced through the information Dr. Robie had given them about prenatal care and screening tests. They'd already decided to do the cell-free fetal DNA test and trust the results. They'd both agreed that they didn't care, that they'd be fine no matter what, but for two people who thrived on information to propel them through life, knowing if there was going to be extra challenges was something they wanted in order to prepare. They'd know in a couple of weeks or less.

There was a soft tap on the door and it opened. Emily smiled, "Hey, Mike."

"Hey, Emily. I almost missed you. You have a few minutes?"

Emily nodded and Mike sat down on the bed next to her. "I've been in Falls Church. I needed to ask Serena a few questions. I wish I'd had you to do it, but I learned well from the master. I think I did ok."

Emily smiled and leaned against him, "I'm sure you did fine."

"I brought her a few things from the house that were cleared to take. Some of her bears, some pictures, some books. She's sad and confused, but she's holding her own."

Emily blinked back tears and said, "I'm glad to hear that."

"I brought you some pictures, Emily." Mike reached into his jacket pocket. "This is the Serena you know," he said, showing her a picture of the smiling girl she met just yesterday. Mike handed her another picture, "And this is Sarah James at five years old."

Emily gasped. Though Serena was much fairer than Sarah in skin tone, the hair styles were exactly the same.

Mike handed her the final picture, "And this is actually Serena Ellis."

Emily let the tears fall. Staring at her was a smiling little girl with looser, medium brown curls with some natural blonde highlights, that fell in a chin-length bob. "Sarah dyed her hair," Emily whispered.

"Yes. She put Serena to sleep with Benadryl and dyed her hair, then took her in to have it braided. She repeated that in December and February. The social worker never knew. Sarah dyed it right after her October home visit with the social worker. She arranged the subsequent visits so they were outside and Serena was in a hat because it was cold. Sarah told Serena that her hair just looked darker in braids and braids were easier. Serena is four. She didn't like it, but she accepted it. Sarah enrolled Serena in preschool after the hair was done, in late October. No one ever knew her a different way."

Emily placed her fingers on the picture of the real Serena. "That poor, sweet girl."

"Emily, do you remember back in October when you were so forward with me about my relationship with Andrew?" Emily nodded. "Well, I'm going to return the favor."

She turned to look at him with her eyebrows raised.

"Serena's social worker's name is Annette. I asked her today about how long she'd hold Serena at Kinship House before finding a permanent placement. I told her that I thought there might be someone who was interested. I told her about you, Emily."

Emily stared at the picture for a few seconds and then turned to look at Mike and said softly, "I killed Sarah. How could I ever reconcile that with Serena?"

"With the right love and support, Serena is either going to let Sarah go, or she's going to have a lot of questions. I can't think of a single person better to field those questions than you."

"I'm pregnant, Mike. Up until yesterday evening, I'd convinced myself that I didn't want kids at all."

Mike gently put his arm around Emily's back. "When I told her about you, do you know what she said?"

Emily shook her head slowly.

Mike continued, "She said, 'You mean the famous Emily Prentiss?'"

Emily looked at Mike in bewilderment and Mike smiled. "She said that she'd already had two similar calls today. One from a Jennifer Jareau and one from a Derek Morgan."

Emily's heart thumped loudly in her ears, but she was so torn on the inside. This day had held too many emotions for her to consider or deal with well. "I need to think, Mike," she whispered.

Mike stood up and turned his body to face hers. He gently cupped Emily's face in his hands. "Ok. You think. You have time. Annette wants to keep Serena at Kinship House until this case has died down a bit." Mike paused to drop a gentle kiss on her forehead and turned towards the door to leave. He reached the handle and turned back. "Do you know what else Annette said? She said, 'This Emily Prentiss must be someone pretty special.' I told her she had absolutely no idea."


	14. Chapter 14

The car ride was quiet. Emily closed her eyes as soon as JJ pulled the car onto the freeway towards home. She needed to do some serious soul searching, but it was just too much for her head to deal with at the moment. Dr. Robie had advised her to listen to her body, so she did. She slept.

Derek helped her upstairs and into bed and she dozed off again, thankful to be home. She could hear a brief muffled conversation between JJ and Derek going on downstairs, and then the front door opening and closing. He came back upstairs then, stripped down to his boxers and crawled into bed behind her. He spooned up against her back gently and placed his arm around her waist and his hand on her stomach. She moved her arm to put her hand over his.

"Does this hurt you?" he asked.

"Not at all. But, Derek, it's seven o'clock. You don't have to come to bed yet."

"I'm exactly where I want to be, Em."

She slept through the night and opened her eyes to the bright light of Wednesday morning. Derek wasn't beside her, the bedroom door was closed and she couldn't hear him making any noise anywhere in the house. She gingerly rolled over onto her back and then back to her side, assessing herself before slowly sitting up. Today was definitely better than yesterday. The headache was still there, but it was very mild.

Her face broke into a smile when she thought about the baby, about the ultrasound yesterday, about hearing that strong heartbeat. She placed her hand on her stomach and whispered, "Good morning, little one."

Emily's thoughts drifted to Serena. She wondered if Derek would have a conversation with her about Serena and quickly decided he wouldn't. She was pretty positive that he and JJ would never mention calling the social worker at all unless Emily initiated the conversation. They wouldn't want her to feel pressured into saying yes; they wouldn't want her to feel guilty about saying no. Thinking about Serena made her heart ache and feel very disoriented. She decided to put her powers of compartmentalization to use. She needed to work through things in her head, but not at this moment. Derek was home today, and she wanted to enjoy the day with him, enjoy being home and alive and pregnant with their child.

She looked at the nightstand and saw a note. _Making breakfast. Holler if you need anything. Love you._

Emily decided she wanted to shower and wash her hair before eating anything. She slowly stood, keeping one hand on the nightstand. The room didn't spin, her legs felt ok. She walked to the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Emily lifted her hair away from where her stitches were and pulled off the gauze pad that covered them. Her stomach turned a little bit at the sight of the bruising, the stitches and the shaved patch of hair; it was pretty gnarly looking. She dropped her hair back down to cover the view and went to turn on the shower, then smirked when she heard pounding footsteps running up the stairs a second later.

Derek opened the bathroom door in a slight panic. He saw her standing and smiling at him and she saw him get himself together and calm down. He relaxed his face and asked, "You good in here on your own?"

"I think so," said Emily. She saw that worried look come back on his face, less worried than yesterday, but still there. "But you could keep me company if you want."

A relieved smile lit up his face. _He's actively trying not to hover, _thought Emily.

Emily got herself undressed and he watched her face this time, instead of looking at her bruises. "You're trying to figure out if I'm hiding how much pain I'm in," she said

"Pretty much."

"Derek, I'm sore, but I'm not trying to hide anything from you. On a scale of one to ten, I'd put my pain at about a four. I'm as surprised as you are that it's not worse. Maybe it's all the endorphins from being so happy about the baby."

Derek stepped forward, gently put his hands on her waist and pressed his lips to hers, but when he attempted to deepen the kiss, she pushed back on his chest. "You let me wash my hair first and I'll give you the kiss of your life. But right now, I just feel really gross."

"OK, but just so you know, I'm going to want to kiss you like that every time you say the word 'baby.'"

Emily smiled and turned to step in the shower and Derek quickly stripped off his clothes and followed her. Emily washed her hair, wincing only a couple of times during the process. They both washed their bodies and took turns rinsing off under the spray. When they stood facing each other again, Derek looked at her and asked, "Now?"

"Now what?"

"You said the kiss of my life. I'm waiting."

Emily laughed. She wrapped one arm around his waist and placed her other hand on the back of his neck, drawing his head down and touching her lips to his. Derek put his arms around her and gently placed his hands on her back. She tried to convey every good emotion she was feeling in that kiss: happiness, excitement, love.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Derek went downstairs to finish making breakfast while Emily got dressed and slowly brushed through her hair. She took the stairs down to the first floor carefully, holding onto the railing, but discovered she was pretty steady on her feet. In the kitchen, her eyes were immediately drawn to the refrigerator and she walked towards it. Derek had put a couple of the ultrasound pictures there and printed out a year-at-a-glance calendar. He'd placed red x's over every day from January 1st through today, and put a heart around October 8, the due date.

He stepped behind her gently wrapped his arms around her body. "Do you like it?" he asked.

"Have I told you lately how much I love you?"

Derek laughed, "Just a few times in the past twenty-four hours."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

They had a relaxing morning lounging in the living room. Derek brought out his laptop and started reading about pregnancy, talking to her while she laid back on the couch.

"Hey, Em. Do you remember back at the beginning of February when you weren't feeling well?"

Yes, she did remember that. She never threw up, but she was nauseous, not just in the morning but throughout the day. She'd thought she had a virus, and then a few days later considered that she'd possibly developed some sort of food sensitivity and she'd tried to eliminate different things to find the cause. But then it had passed and she hadn't given it another thought.

At a certain point, Derek got up to get paper and a pen and started making a shopping list. Prenatal vitamins, a large variety of decaffeinated teas since coffee was out, healthy brain foods he read about online. Emily couldn't stop smiling at him. He was just so excited.

Emily's regular obstetrician, Dr. Rodgers, called around 10:00am. Dr. Robie had emailed her all of Emily's information. When she answered the phone the doctor asked, "How's the miracle mom and baby doing today?" They discussed the blood test Emily had taken the day before and told Emily she would call the day the cell-free DNA results came in. It could be as early as next week, she said.

Derek asked Emily if they could call his mom and tell her and was giddy when Emily told him that they absolutely should. Derek went into the kitchen and got one of the ultrasound pictures. He wrote on a piece of paper, "Hi, Grandma," and lined the note and picture up next to each other on the coffee table. He took a picture and texted it to his mom. It took less than thirty seconds for Fran to call him back. He answered on speaker, and Emily could hear squealing and laughter and crying. That started Emily's happy tears again. She had a lot of love in her life.

Derek surprised Emily after lunch by saying he thought he'd hit the grocery store if she thought she'd be ok. She really hadn't thought he'd leave her sight today, but she was glad that he was willing to. It meant he was doing okay, too.

She napped while he was gone, and came into the kitchen when he returned home, laden with bags of groceries, more food than they could possibly eat before it went bad. When he unloaded several different pint sized containers of ice cream she said to him with a smile, "How cliche."

That evening, while he was cooking dinner and she sat at the kitchen counter staring at the calendar on the fridge, he surprised her again. "I talked to Judy across the street and she's going to be home all day tomorrow if you needed anything. I was thinking about going into work so I could save as many personal days as possible. Is that okay with you?"

She raised her eyebrows at him and said, "I'm perfectly fine if you go to work tomorrow, but, Derek, what gives? You were trying to give me space up in the shower when I could tell you were concerned, you left to go to the grocery store and now this. I was worried that you'd either be emotionally shut down for awhile after this, which you're definitely not. Or I thought you'd go the opposite direction and hover to the point that I went a little crazy. I didn't expect this middle ground right away."

He turned to lean against the counter. "I called Julia Adams on Monday night. Right after I found out you were pregnant, but before I could go up and see you. I was worried about being able to find that middle ground. But I shouldn't have worried. I know you alone might try and push yourself into a faster recovery than reality, but I know you wouldn't do that now that you're pregnant. I'm trusting you'll tell me what you need and where you're at, and I'm trusting that you'll come home safely to me, too, every day. I'm trying out that whole faith thing you talked about."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On Thursday morning, Derek got ready for work and came to stand next to Emily who was awake in the bed. He bent to place a kiss on her stomach and then kissed her.

Emily placed her hand on his cheek and said, "I love you, Derek. I'll check in immediately if there's not something feeling right. I promise."

He looked her in the eyes for a few seconds, took a deep breath and nodded his head. "I'll see you tonight for dinner, Em. I love you."

After she ate breakfast and took her vitamins, Emily turned on her phone, which she'd left off all day yesterday. She had a few "thinking about you" type texts from the team. She had a few missed calls from people interested in hiring her, all people she'd worked with before. And she had a message from Linda Horton in Fairfax. Linda, who had held Lee Harrison in her offices while it all went down, knew what had happened and was calling to check in. Emily was on friendly terms with the woman, having had lunch with her a couple of times while she was working for Fairfax County. Emily returned her call first and got to say the words "I'm pregnant" to someone else for the first time. It felt amazing.

Next she called the different people she was scheduled to consult for over the remainder of this week and next. The doctor had advised her to take it slow with the driving thing. She decided to give herself the week, which was different for her; usually she'd want to jump right back in. Most of her current caseload was evidence gathering in preparation for trials so it was easy to shift things around. The attorneys she spoke with were all understanding, and Emily got the sense that they had put two and two together, that they had read the news, that they knew it was a consultant for the Warrenton County Sheriff's Office who had been in Sarah's house that night and that person was Emily. They didn't press her for information, though, and just accepted her story of an accident and a concussion.

Finally, she returned the calls for new cases, both of which she regretfully declined. They were too emergent and she couldn't do them at the moment.

She made herself some tea, went to sit in her favorite chair in the den, took a deep breath and allowed herself to think about Serena. What came at her was a jumble of emotions and thoughts that were overwhelming. She tried to prioritize them and found it difficult; there was longing there, but there were also many reservations. She inhaled deeply again and tried to piece the jumbled thoughts together. The first thing she'd said to Mike was about being able to reconcile the idea that she'd been a part of the final altercation with Sarah; she'd killed her even if on paper it was officially Reid. Going with that idea, she needed to know more about Serena's life with Sarah.

She called Garcia, who squealed upon answering and said, "Em3 The Mommy Version!"

Emily laughed and chatted with her for a few minutes. Garcia, it seemed, had done nothing but online shopping for baby clothes and accessories for the past twenty-four hours and Emily couldn't help smiling at her enthusiasm. But finally, she got down to what she needed.

"Pen, can you email me a copy of Sarah's journal? I don't need everything; just the last year."

"Coming your way right now, friend."

"Thanks. How's Derek doing today? He really didn't want to leave this morning."

Garcia hesitated, "Um. I haven't really seen him much. I talked to him a bit and he seemed to be doing okay, though. In a rush to do some paperwork so he can get home early. I'll keep a look out and let you know if anything seems off. Hey, JJ said she was going to stop by this evening if it was okay with you. Is it okay if I tag along?"

"I'd love to see you both."

"Ten-four, Em3. See you soon."

Emily went to her computer and opened her email. Not wanting to overdo it with the computer screen, she printed Sarah's journal, which went on and on. When the printing was finished, Emily got on her reading glasses and settled in. Sarah was all over the map, talking in present and past tense, talking about herself in the third person or the first person. But Emily was able to discern a few things from her ramblings: Serena had never really been allowed to properly mourn the loss of her father, other than that Sarah's worst transgression towards Serena was her hair, and if Sarah had really been able to frame Lee, Emily was quite certain her rage would have eventually shifted to Serena.

_Emily, you can handle all of this,_ she told herself. And she could. She could field Serena's questions and handle them with ease, just like Mike had said. That much she trusted herself with. But then came the hard part: She'd never wanted kids because she was afraid of what she could potentially be like as a mother. The logical side of her could say she was being ridiculous, but there was the big fear factor in there that she had a hard time overriding. Her childhood was volotile, and putting herself in those shoes scared the ever loving crap out of her. She was overjoyed with her pregnancy, but she also knew she had months to come to terms with her fears and get past them. With Serena, it was like shoving those fears right in her face and having to deal with them right away.

She found her head starting to hurt again and decided to give herself a break from this thought process for awhile. She moved from the den and settled herself on the couch. She slept.

At 1:00, Judy from across the street showed up with some lunch. "I was ordered to make sure you were eating," she said. She didn't say anything about the slight bruises on Emily's face, or the circles under Emily's eyes. Emily's interactions with this woman had been brief, but she was always kind. She was not the type to push or gossip. She had three kids, one son was Henry's age, and the boys had played together from time to time when Emily had Henry. She found herself confiding in someone else that she was pregnant. All of Judy's kids had after school activities so they ended up eating ice cream together and talking about pregnancy for over two hours.

Derek showed up at 4:30, surprisingly early. Garcia quickly followed and then JJ showed up with Henry. Emily was overjoyed to see Henry. He was gentle with her as she sat on the couch. He said, "Mommy said you had an accident," and he snuggled gently into her side, just content to have his arms around her. Emily blinked back tears and took a deep breath to gather herself.

Dinner was a quiet affair, just her and Derek. In her head, Emily conceded that she wasn't physically exhausted as much as she was emotionally exhausted. She found herself giving Derek lingering looks, wondering if it would be better to just let Serena go and focus on them and her pregnancy.

But that night, she startled awake with the thought of that sweet, smiling girl patting her cheek just a few mornings ago. She quietly crept out of bed and retrieved the folder of paperwork from Dr. Robie where she'd stashed the pictures Mike had given her. She took the picture of the real Serena back to bed with her and stared at it in the pale moonlight until she drifted off to sleep again.

She was vaguely aware of Derek kissing her forehead the next morning before heading to work, but she continued to sleep. When she awoke, the first thing she saw was Serena's picture, now propped up against her bedside lamp. Her eyes welled up as she read the note that was stuck to the edge of it. "I'm taking a leap to change my thinking and have faith in you. Maybe you could take the same leap and have a little more faith in yourself, Em."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the end, it was all about that note. It wasn't about long processing or discussions. It was about a nudge...

Emily showered and thought. She decided she needed to see Serena. She needed to field some questions. She needed to see how that felt, first. It was a leap of faith and she could do it.

She put on makeup to cover most of the bruising, and pulled her hair back in a low ponytail, to make sure the stitches were firmly covered.

She looked through her files and found the name and contact information of the woman she was looking for, a rape victim she'd worked with and connected with back in December. She called her and explained, asked.

Next she called Annette Craig, Serena's social worker. She asked if she could visit, asked permission for what she wanted.

Finally, she called a cab. She made one stop at the bookstore and asked the driver to wait. When she returned to the cab, she asked the driver to take her to Falls Church.

XXXXXXXXXX

Annette Craig met Emily on the front steps of Kinship House. They introduced themselves and Annette ushered Emily into her office.

"What does Serena know?" asked Emily.

Annette smiled kindly at Emily. "She knows Sarah is dead. She knows about her hair because Mike asked her about it. She was very confused about that, but she's had the opportunity for therapy sessions since Tuesday and she goes, but doesn't talk much. She's pretty shut off right now and we haven't been able to get much out of her. She's very confused. She went to sleep and woke up and her whole world had changed...for the second time."

Emily nodded sadly. "Can I see her?"

"Of course. She's in our waiting area because I knew you were coming. "

Annette walked Emily down the hall to the next door, opened it and ushered Emily through. Annette leaned against the doorway to watch. Serena, who had been reading on a bean bag chair in the corner, looked up. "Emily!" she shouted and stood up and ran across the room. Emily quickly got down on one knee before Serena reached her. Serena wrapped her arms around her and Emily returned the hug, blinking back tears in her eyes.

Emily eyed a big chair in the room and stood, taking Serena's hand. "Come sit with me, sweet girl. I've missed you."

Serena followed Emily to the chair and when Emily sat and beckoned her up, instead of taking a typical lap-sitting position, Serena crawled into Emily's lap facing her. Serena put her arms around Emily's neck again and rested her head on Emily's shoulder. "Mama Sarah's dead," she whispered.

Emily gently rubbed her hands on Serena's back and whispered, "I know, Serena. I'm so sorry."

Serena sat with her head against Emily's shoulder for a minute, not crying, but quiet. Finally, she sat up and looked at Emily. Serena took her hands and placed them gently underneath Emily's eyes. "What happened?" Serena asked.

"I had an accident," said Emily. "But I'm okay."

"Are you sure? It looks like it hurts."

"I'm sure, sweet girl. I heard Mike talked to you about your hair."

Serena nodded sadly and took her hands from Emily's face, reaching down to remove Emily's arms from around her and clasping their hands together, like Emily did in the cognitive interview.

"I remember a funny smell," said Serena. "I remember water." Serena closed her eyes slowly and then looked at Emily, "Why would Mama Sarah do that?"

"Because there are good choices and poor choices, and sometimes people make poor choices. Mama Sarah made a poor choice. She wanted you to look more like her instead of who you are."

Serena nodded sadly and Emily took her hands and placed them on Serena's cheeks. "I came here to ask you something. I have a friend who does hair. She works just a couple of blocks away from here. And Annette said I could take you and we could get you back your real hair. Would you like that?"

Serena's eyes brightened as she looked at Emily. "Really?"

"Really. It will take awhile, it will smell funny again, and you'll have to sit very still for it." Emily reached into her purse that was next to her and brought out a copy of of the newest Ivy and Bean book. "I thought I could read to you while you were having your hair done."

Serena inhaled and smiled happily, "Emily! I've never read this one."

"Then it will be like a new adventure, sweet girl. Shall we go?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kelly, the sexual assalt victim Emily had worked with, was every bit the same kind, quiet and discreet woman Emily had met back in December. She was healing. She didn't ask questions. She was exactly who Serena needed to do this. In a way, it was therapy for all of them.

Emily handed her Serena's picture and said, "Like this," and Kelly got to work.

Emily put on her reading glasses and Serena said, "I didn't know you had glasses. I like them. You look pretty."

Emily smiled and started reading.

A couple of hours later, when the book was nearly done, when Serena's hair was finished, Kelly turned Serena's chair so she could face the mirror.

A spark lit in the little girl's eyes like Emily had never seen before. Serena smiled happily and exclaimed, "Emily! It's me!"

Emily blinked back tears and said, "It is most definitely you, Serena."

Emily decided she wanted her and Derek to be the people that made certain that spark never left Serena's eyes again. She knew in that moment she could do it. No fear.

XXXXXXXXXXX

They walked their way back to Kinship House and Serena looked in every window they passed, seeing her reflection, smiling at herself and giggling. It was all Emily could do to keep walking. Her heart felt like it was about to burst.

Once they arrived, Emily got Serena situated in the waiting room, handing her the book to finish, explaining that she needed to talk to Annette for a bit, but that she'd be back.

Emily entered Annette's office and sat across from her. "OK," Emily said, "I know you've talked to Derek. What do we need to do in order to make this happen? I'll go home and Derek and I can talk and fill out the initial paperwork. I know this can take a couple of months at minimum. Would you be willing to keep Serena here while we go through the process?"

Annette smiled at her and picked up a folded piece of paper, handing it to Emily, "I was told to give you this the moment you asked those questions."

Emily confusedly took the paper and unfolded it. It was Derek's writing.

"_We have more than enough love in us to spread it around. I wanted you to find faith in yourself and you did. I'm all in, Em."_

Emily blinked back tears again and looked at Annette in bewilderment.

"One of our first steps is to do a background check and fingerprint potential applicants. As a non-profit, we can't rush those on an emergency basis, but the county can. Do you know Wayne Dwyer?"

Emily nodded. He was the head of Arlington County Social Services. Emily had worked with him once.

"Well, Wayne had your emergency background checks and fingerprints cleared around noon yesterday for both you and Derek." Annette paused and looked at Emily, who couldn't quite yet grasp what was going on.

"We ask for pictures of the home, and yours are right here." Annette held up some papers, smiled and continued, "We typically ask our foster parents to go through classes to learn how to talk to kids about traumatic experience, but I'm quite certain you could teach us a thing or two about that."

The social worker then reached down and picked up a stack of papers, placing them on her desk. "We also ask for character references. Derek may have gone just a tad bit overboard in that department. I met with him around noon yesterday and by four o'clock, these were at the office. I told him there wasn't a need for so many and he said he just wanted to cover his bases. He didn't want all of your references to come from the BAU, so he sent out requests to several people you've worked with in the past, Emily, in hopes that one or two would have time to write something. What actually happened is that they _all_ did."

Emily was freely crying now as Annette started flipping through the stack. "I've got nine Commonwealth Attorneys, three county sheriffs, six officers from various cities and four social workers from throughout the state. And then there's the BAU. I've got a reference from all of them." Annette picked up the thickest stapled pack in the bunch, "A Dr. Spencer Reid wrote me a dissertation. I'll admit that I had to use a dictionary to understand some of the words."

Emily laughed through her tears and mumbled, "Derek Morgan."

"He's pretty amazing. In my twenty years of doing this, I've never even come close to seeing anything like this." said Annette. "Anyway, all I need you to do is sign on the dotted line. I have to do one home visit before I can release Serena to you as foster parents. I can do that concurrently."

Emily raised her eyes and Annette said, "Once you sign a couple of pages, I can bring her to you tomorrow, do the home visit, and release her. I have to do six months of home visits at minimum before there could be a final adoption, that much is required, but other than that, she'd be yours and Derek's."

XXXXXXXXXX

Emily splashed cold water on her face in the bathroom, trying to look normal. Annette called her a cab and she knew she only had a bit of time. Once she felt like she wasn't going to fall apart in happiness, she dried her face. She walked back into the waiting room where Serena was finishing the book. Emily took the chair she'd sat in before and said, "Serena, come here a minute."

Serena put the book down and crawled back into Emily's lap, facing her, like before.

"I have an important question for you. How would you like to come live with me and Derek?"

Serena's eyes opened wide and she brought her hands up to Emily's checks, clutching them gently. "Forever?" Serena whispered.

"Forever," said Emily.


	15. Chapter 15

Annette had told Emily that if she needed a few more days to get things ready, that would be fine. But once the decision had been made in Emily's mind, she just wanted Serena with them. It was the weekend, she knew Hotch would grant Derek an off-call request, and they could get Serena settled together.

Serena sat on Emily's lap while Emily waited for the cab to come. She asked when she could come to their house and Emily told her tomorrow. She asked about the house and Emily showed her the pictures Annette had. She asked about her room and Emily promised she would get all of Serena's special things back from Mike, but that it might take a few days. Emily assured Serena that they would all figure it out together and Serena seemed to trust Emily completely in that.

Emily was just about to ask Serena if she wanted to call Derek when there was a light knock on the open door frame of the waiting room. Emily turned expecting to see Annette telling her that the cab was here. Instead she saw Derek. _Of course_, she thought, and her heart felt like it would burst again at the sight of him.

Serena jumped down from Emily's lap and turned towards the door. Derek got down on one knee with a surprised look on his face and exclaimed, "Serena! Is that you?"

Serena giggled and exclaimed back, "You didn't recognize me because of my hair!"

Derek gasped in recognition. "That's it! It is the most fabulous hair I've ever seen, Serena."

Serena smiled brightly and stepped towards Derek, coming to a stop right in front of him. "Did you know I'm going to come live with you and Emily?"

"Why do you think I rushed over here? I came to tell you that I can't wait until tomorrow!"

Serena regarded him for a moment and then took the final step and put her arms around him. Emily wiped her cheeks, stood up and walked towards them as Derek stood, lifting Serena up in his arms. Derek shifted Serena to his left hip and held her in one arm, then reached to put his other arm around Emily, drawing her in towards his right side. He placed a gentle kiss on Emily's forehead.

Serena put a hand on Emily's cheek. "Why are you crying?"

"Because sometimes people cry when they're very, very happy, sweet girl."

Serena nodded and looked between Derek and Emily. "I lived with my Papa and I lived with Mama Sarah, but I never had both at the same time before." She sighed and rested her head on Derek's shoulder, looked at Emily and smiled. "What should I call you?" Serena asked.

Derek responded, "Whatever you want, Serena."

The little girl scrunched up her face in concentration. "I'll think about it."

XXXXXXXXX

They left Serena with promises of tomorrow. They told her they had things to get ready in the house in order for her to come home, and she accepted that. Serena stood on the front porch of Kinship House and happily waved to them as they drove away. Emily held Derek's hand in the car and watched Serena until she was out of sight. She turned to Derek and smiled.

"You asked Mike to talk to me at the hospital?" she questioned.

Derek shook his head, "No. But he told me after. He told me that you knew I'd called Annette."

"You had JJ call Annette, too?"

Again Derek shook his head, "No. JJ actually called her first. I didn't know at the time. I called Annette a little later in the day, when I couldn't get that look on your face when you said Serena's name out of my head. I could see in your eyes that you really cared about her."

"And all the paperwork? How did you know to do all of that if you didn't know where I was at?" Emily asked.

"Because I know you. Because I knew that you would eventually come to the conclusion that if we didn't take Serena, you'd regret it forever. And then I really wanted her, too. When you called Garcia yesterday morning to ask for Sarah's journals, I knew it was time to really put the wheels in motion." He turned in the driver's seat and smiled at Emily before turning his head back to the road. "Do you have any idea how people feel about you, Em? I had Garcia pull your consulting records from your computer and she gave me a list of all the people you've worked with. I pulled the ones you'd consulted with more than once, or single cases that went on for a few days. I was really hoping to just get a couple of character references back. I emailed twenty-two people with busy, demanding jobs, and every single one of them emailed me back a character reference within a few hours."

"I have no words for that, Derek. I just feel like I'm doing my job. I know I'm good at it, but I didn't realize I was leaving that much of an impact behind. It's overwhelming."

Derek brought her hand to his lips and gently kissed her knuckles. "When I saw that picture of Serena on the floor by your side of the bed this morning, I decided to give you a nudge."

Emily huffed out a laugh. "Nicely played, Derek Morgan."

Derek smiled, "Engaged on Sunday, pregnancy shocker on Monday night, foster parents by Friday. I told you last summer that we don't do anything average, and this definitely proves that."

"We're crazy. You realize that right? Spectacular, but crazy. We need to research preschools. We need to think about what we're going to do with her room." Emily dropped her right hand over her stomach and smiled lovingly at him. "And then we need to figure out what we're going to do about being short a room come October."

"We can handle this, Em. I know neither of us want to move from that house. It's ours. We could pretty easily add two rooms upstairs, over the back porch. It's not difficult construction with the way our roofline is and with the way the current rooms are configured upstairs. We probably would only have to move out of our rooms for a very short amount of time, while the finishing touches were happening. One new room for the baby and a guest room, for my family and the gaggle of kids you like to keep," he said with a smile.

Emily grinned, "A perfect solution, though I'd expect nothing less from you at this moment. Or ever, really. What about Serena's room? The current guest room is fine, but I want it to be her own. We need to call Mike and get some of her special things down here, especially her books and bears."

Derek glanced at her again with one eyebrow raised and Emily smirked. "You already have this figured out, don't you?"

"You, my beautiful Emily, are going to go home and rest. JJ, Garcia and Reid are currently packing up our guest room and moving things down to the garage. Hotch and Rossi left for Flint Mill awhile ago. Mike's helping them load up Serena's things and they'll drive back here to help move them in. I know you told Hotch in your statement that she loved her room, so I talked to Annette. I didn't want to create an issue with using the same furniture, but Annette told me that Serena's room was the same furniture she had with her dad and I thought that would be a good move."

"Don't you wonderful people ever work anymore?"

"I sent out a cosmic vibe to the universe. Even the sociopaths knew not to screw around with me these past few days."

Emily turned in her seat to place her right hand on Derek's chest. "Where on earth did you come from, Derek Morgan?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily found herself growing sleepy the last few minutes of the drive home. Derek helped usher her into the house and up the stairs. She saw Reid who squeezed her hand and said, "Your character reference was the best thing I've ever had the pleasure of writing, Emily." Penelope and JJ gave her hugs and told her to get some rest, that they had this under control. Derek got her into bed and spent several seconds pressing gentle kisses on her stomach before kissing her lips and telling her to sleep for a bit.

A couple of hours later, Emily woke up to thumping and bumping noises coming from down the hall. She saw JJ's head peek in the bedroom door, and JJ smiled when she saw Emily awake, then disappeared from the doorway. She returned a minute later with two containers of ice cream and two spoons, kicked off her shoes and plopped herself gently on Derek's side of the bed, crossing her legs and facing Emily.

Emily grinned and sat up in bed, adjusting the pillows so she was relaxed in an upright position. JJ held out the two flavors and asked, "Which one? I'm cool with whatever."

"Definitely the mint chip."

JJ handed her the container and spoon and opened her own container. "Garcia took Henry and Jack to the movies. Hotch and Rossi are back here with Serena's things. Will's here. All of them are beating their chests, moving things and putting furniture together, including Spence. As entertaining as that is, I decided I'd rather let the boys have at it and spend time with you, Super Mom."

Emily smiled at her friend. "How much did you and Derek conspire on this whole thing, Jayje? You asked to come visit yesterday, but didn't ask to bring Henry. You knew I would have told you to wait until I looked a little less like a train wreck. But you brought him because you knew it would make me think."

"First of all, you don't look like a train wreck. You look happy, with a few bruises that are fading. But I'm pretty positive anyone who looked at you would see the happiness first. We didn't conspire much at all; this was almost all Derek." JJ paused, put her spoon in the ice cream and reached over to pat Emily's leg. "How are you doing with your Mommy Dearest complex, my friend?"

Emily startled a bit at that, but wasn't really surprised that Derek had talked with JJ about it. "Good. It's pretty easy to create an issue in your head about something that becomes bigger the longer you let it fester. Once I decided I wanted Serena, I became much more confident about the whole thing, about who I could be as a parent."

"You are going to be so fabulous, Emily. I can't wait to see you with her. I'm so excited for you and Derek, and for Serena. And I can't wait for the baby to come in October."

Emily blinked back tears and shook her head, "It's all just so unbelievable. But, Jayje, when I think about Derek during that ultrasound, and when I saw him with Serena today, when he picked her up and she wrapped her arms around him, and I listened to how they talked to each other...I can't believe that I ever considered not having children with him."

"I think we end up where we're supposed to be in life, and that's ninety percent choices we make and ten percent fate. You and Derek would have had kids at some point, I'm quite certain. You would have chosen that eventually because you both were supposed to be parents in life. Fate just got a little tired of waiting for you to choose, upped her stakes in the game and handed you want you needed on a silver platter."

Emily laughed quietly. "You always know the right things to say. Thank you."

"Anytime, Em. You know that." JJ took a spoonful of ice cream and chuckled.

"What?" asked Emily.

JJ sobered and shook her head. "It's nothing."

"No, really. What?"

"I've been a little jealous of your obviously very active sex life. But now you're going to have Serena and soon enough you're going to have two kids and you're going to see what it's like to try and balance all of that and find time, though I've no doubt you will."

Emily blushed slightly, "It's not that obvious."

JJ laughed again, "Come on, Emily. This past Saturday is not the first time I've shown up at your house and clearly interrupted something."

Emily chuckled then, "Ok, maybe a little obvious. We'll figure it out. We have to abstain anyway for awhile. Dr. Robie advised us to get through the first trimester and my next appointment with my regular doctor."

JJ put the back of her hand on her forehead and sighed dramatically, "Two whole weeks. Whatever will you do?" Both of them giggled at that.

"Em, you remember last summer…"

"Don't you dare mention those pictures, Jennifer Jareau," Emily sternly interrupted.

"Not the pictures. But when Derek went off and was talking about times you'd seen each other while you were living in London and you nearly lost your shit when he brought up August 2013 and you covered his mouth to shut him up." JJ paused and raised her eyebrow at Emily.

Emily looked away from JJ, but smiled. "I was at the State Department for a meeting. I had about two hours before my meeting, but very little time after before my flight left . You guys were working a local case so I didn't get to see him in the morning. You wrapped up the case by the time my meeting was done. Instead of heading back to Quantico right away, he took one of the Bureau vehicles and drove with lights and sirens to the airport."

She paused and thought about that day for a moment. How he'd called her forty-five minutes before her flight and said he'd be there in ten minutes and to wait on the curb. How he'd pulled up, smiled and said, "Hurry, Princess. This chariot turns into a pumpkin in about thirty minutes." She'd taken one look at him and climbed into the backseat, where she took off her jacket and started unbuttoning her blouse while he drove. Garcia had called and asked Derek where the hell he was and he'd responded that he was fine, he'd be back soon, he just had something he absolutely needed to do. When he'd disconnected the call, Emily had smiled, winked at him in the rearview mirror and said, "You mean some_one_ to do."

Emily shook her head and came back to the present and looked at JJ, "Back seat of the Bureau vehicle in the parking lot at the airport."

"Shut up!" JJ started laughing. Emily joined in and they had one of those moments where they just couldn't stop. The week had been wonderful, frightening, overwhelming and exciting and the laughter was a release for all of it.

Once they'd calmed down, JJ asked, "Ready to go see what's happening down the hall?"

Emily nodded and they both stood and took their ice cream with them. Serena's furniture was all in place, her bed was made. There were several boxes stacked in the corner of the room. Will was packing up the remaining things that were in the spare bedroom closet and Derek was arranging Serena's bears based off a picture Mike must have sent to his phone. The rest of the shelves and flat surfaces were empty.

Derek turned around and smiled at Emily, who managed a weak smile back. She walked over and sat down on the edge of Serena's bed. "This suddenly just got very real."

Derek sat next to her and put a gentle hand on her back, "It's going to be awesome, Em. What do you think about the boxes of her toys and clothes and things? I was thinking we should leave them and unpack them with her tomorrow. There may be things in there that she wants to let go of in order to move forward. I've read that can be common."

Emily huffed out a laugh and looked at him, "Of course you've been reading all about this." Then she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I love you. Sounds like a good plan."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Garcia returned with Henry and Jack. Emily reassured the two boys that they would always be welcome at the house. In Emily's mind, nothing had changed in that regard, though there were some reservations; she didn't quite know what Serena would think about that whole arrangement at first.

Shortly after, everyone left. There were many thank yous on the part of Emily and Derek and lots of hugs all around. Emily had debated inviting everyone to stay for a take-out dinner, but decided she wanted one last evening in their home, just her and Derek.

They sat on the couch together, Emily leaning into Derek's side, while Derek looked on his laptop for preschools in the area. They both agreed that Serena would be bored out of her mind at a preschool designed to academically prepare kids for kindergarten. They found a few for Emily to call on Monday that looked promising. Play-based or nature-based, with the opportunity for self-paced learning, and a lot of ethnic diversity. They joked about how the tuition was more than their yearly tuition when they were in college. It wasn't really an issue, though. They were financially comfortable on their own, and Derek often joked about Emily's "Dupont Circle Debacle Fund," which was really a trust fund from her grandmother. It wasn't enough to set them up for life in a mansion, but it was enough to be able to do what they thought was best for Serena, and for the future baby, without hesitating.

After a while, Derek closed up his laptop and turned to Emily. "We should eat some dinner. What do you feel like, my beautiful Emily?"

"Hmmm. Take out, I think."

Derek smiled at her. "Thai?"

"Definitely. I'll call it in."

Derek dropped a kiss on Emily's lips and stood, "I'm on my way."

Emily thought about what her and JJ were talking about earlier. She called in their usual order and lit a fire in the fireplace. Then she went and gathered a few throw pillows because despite the rug in front of the hearth, that was just too hard a surface for her bruised ass to handle at the moment. She filled two wine glasses with sparkling water and lit some candles in the living room. Then she went upstairs and changed into the silk pajama set Derek had given her for her last birthday.

When Derek walked back in the house, he surveyed the living room and walked over to the fireplace, where he found Emily comfortably lounging. He smiled, "You are breathtaking, Emily. But I think you're forgetting a very important thing here. Or two. You're still technically recovering from a concussion and we can't do this right now."

Emily smiled at him. "How presumptuous, Derek Morgan."

Derek laughed, "Well, I've come home to this scene several times this winter and it never ended in conversation."

Emily patted the pillow next to her. "Grab a couple of forks and let's eat."

They made their way through their take-out in usual fashion, passing their containers back and forth and sharing. "So, Em, what were you and JJ laughing about in the bedroom earlier?"

Emily smiled at him, "I told her about the Bureau car in the airport parking lot."

"Ha! That was awesome."

"It was definitely awesome."

They finished their food and set their containers on the coffee table. Emily sat up and swung her leg over him so she was straddling his thighs. "This is probably our last chance to get naked in front of the fire for awhile. Want to make out?"

Derek waggled his eyebrows at her. "You think I can get to second base?"

Emily laughed, wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his. He put his hands under her camisole, around her waist. They kissed for several long minutes and Emily ran her hands under his shirt and up his chest, lifting the fabric up and over his head. She bent forward to kiss his chest, then pushed back on him until he laid back flat on the floor. Emily sat over him and pulled her pajama top off, and then laid back down to press her chest against his, engaging him in another kiss. Derek ran his hands up and down her back gently.

After that, they quickly stripped off the remainder of their clothing and Emily lined the pillows up along his side so she could lay on her left side facing him, with her back to the fire. Emily moaned when Derek cupped her breast in his hand and ran his thumb over her nipple, and she could feel him getting hard. "Ignore that," he mumbled against her lips.

Emily smiled. "I may not be able to go any further than this, but I can help you out," she said as she ran her hand down his chest and stomach.

Derek clasped her hand to stop her, "No, Em. I'll wait with you."

She looked in his eyes and saw she wasn't going to have any success trying to change his mind. She kissed his lips briefly and said, "Then we should probably stop and calm down."

He wrapped his arms around her and they laid there quietly for a few minutes.

"You okay, Em?"

"If by 'okay' you mean 'horny as hell', then yes." They both laughed.

After another minute, Emily pulled away from him slightly and propped herself up on her elbow. She placed her hand on his cheek. "You know how you told me you were going to fall more in love with me every day watching me be a mother? I heard you but I didn't really understand. I kind of thought we were at our peak with how much we loved each other. But then I saw you with Serena today and I realized there's a whole other untapped layer of love there. And I can't wait to experience it with you. I'm thinking our world is going to be rocked tomorrow in a very good way and rocked again come October. I'm looking forward to the adventure with you."

XXXXXXXXXX

Emily awoke the next morning at 5:00am and couldn't fall back to sleep. She had butterflies in her stomach, a combination of excitement and nervousness. Annette was bringing Serena at noon.

She quietly crept from the bed and threw on her robe, heading downstairs to make a cup of tea before settling on her chair in the den. She felt the need to talk so she grabbed her phone, scrolled through to Julia Adam's phone number and hit the call button.

Julia picked up after one ring. "Emily?" she asked in her British accent.

Emily smiled, "Hi, Julia."

"You're up early. I'm so glad to hear your voice, Emily. You sound well. How are you feeling?"

"I'm good, great. I know Derek talked to you. My body is healing fine. It's been a crazy week Julia," Emily rambled.

"You mean besides getting nice and banged up?"

Emily spoke quickly and excitedly, "There's that. But last Sunday, Derek and I got engaged. While I was unconscious after getting nice and banged up, the doctor discovered I was pregnant. Everything looks good there. I'm due in October. And then the person who caused me to get nice and banged up had a four year old foster daughter and we're taking her in. She's coming today. Holy shit, right? I think I just needed to say all of that out loud."

There was absolute silence on the other end of the line for about five seconds and then Emily could hear Julia's laughter, which caused Emily to start laughing. Julia finally took a deep breath and said, "Well, Emily, no one could say you do a 'crazy week' half-arsed, that's for sure. I'm rather speechless, which is rare for me. I can tell by your voice that your head is in a good place with this, which I'm so happy to hear. Tell me everything."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily and Julia talked for over two hours. A little after 7:00, Derek came wandering downstairs and peaked into the den raising his eyebrows.

"Hang on a second," Emily said into the phone. She smiled at Derek, "It's Julia. She wants to know where you came from, too. She doesn't quite believe you're real."

Derek laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Breakfast?"

"Let me get off the phone and we can get dressed and walk to the cafe. It will make the time go faster."

Derek positively beamed at her, happy that she sounded so excited.

Over breakfast, they talked and decided to take the calendar and ultrasound pictures off the refrigerator for bit. Annette had said they could go either way, waiting awhile to tell Serena Emily was pregnant or telling her right away. But not that first day; obviously that would be overwhelming. They decided waiting until after her appointment in a couple of weeks would probably be best.

When they got home, they flitted nervously around the house, cleaning things that didn't need to be cleaned and doing some laundry. They tried to watch TV, but they really weren't seeing what was on the screen. They sat on the couch, holding hands, and everyone once in awhile they would look at each other and laugh nervously in disbelief.

Annette was right on time. At noon, they heard a knock on their door and then could hear Serena from the other side shouting happily, "Emily! Derek! I'm here!"

They looked at each other, both blinking back tears at the sound of her sweet and excited voice. They each took a deep breath and collected themselves.

Emily stood next to Derek as he opened the door, and there she was.


	16. Chapter 16

Serena bounced in the front door and wrapped an arm around each of their legs giving them a quick squeeze, then she stepped back and looked up at them. "Hi," she said quietly. "I like your house."

Emily was surprised to see Serena wearing the Tinkerbell t-shirt and jeans she'd gotten last Monday at the sheriff's office, the outfit she'd fallen asleep in that afternoon at Sarah's house. Perhaps it was because she identified those clothes with Emily. Emily bent down to eye level and said, "We are so glad you're here, Serena." Serena put her arms around Emily's neck and Emily hugged her back.

Then Derek bent down and she gave him a hug. He lifted her and said, "Let's let Annette come in and we can walk and take a look around the house."

Serena quietly glanced around each room from Derek's arms as Annette checked for the fire extinguisher in the kitchen, checked the refrigerator for food, checked the water in the sinks, the fire alarms and the carbon monoxide detectors. She asked to see the lock box for Derek's gun. Derek and Emily showed Annette Serena's room last and Serena smiled when she saw her furniture and her bears.

After that, Derek and Emily signed one more release paper. She handed them some pamphlets and the documentation declaring them legal guardians. They chatted with Annette for a few minutes, and she let them know that Serena had been going to bed around 7:30 each night, and that she'd had a bath the night before. They scheduled a home visit for the following Friday. Annette told them they had a lovely home and told them to call if they needed anything. She left Serena's bag and booster seat in the entryway, gave Serena a hug goodbye and left.

As soon as the door closed, Serena whispered, "Can I walk around now?"

Derek put her on the ground and said, "Of course, Serena."

She took each of their hands and slowly made her way through the living room and den. She seemed most fascinated by the pictures. She asked about the pictures of Emily and Derek when they were children, the pictures Derek had given Emily as a gift the day they moved in. In the den, she pointed to the picture of Emily with Jack and Henry by their sand castle from back in September. "Who are they?"

"Those are my friends Jack and Henry."

"Henry's the one who is a little bit bigger than me?"

Emily laughed, "You have a very good memory. Yes, that's Henry."

"Will he be my friend, too?"

"I think you and Henry are going to be good friends, Serena. He's a very nice boy and a lot of fun. He's six and you're almost five. Maybe he can come over and play next week."

Serena looked at her and asked, "At this house?" Emily nodded and Serena said, "I've never had a friend over to play before. I never did at Sarah's. Sometimes in my books people have friends come over to play. I bet it's fun."

Emily caught Derek's eye, both surprised that Serena had dropped the "Mama" off the front of Sarah's name already.

"Well, you can have friends over here, and I think it will be a lot of fun! Henry and Jack are here sometimes when their parents are working. Also, my friend Judy across the street has a little girl who's five. Her name is Ella. Maybe you can meet her soon, too," said Emily.

Serena looked at them both, smiled and nodded, then looked around again. "You have a lot of pictures, in here and out there and upstairs."

Derek bent down and said, "And soon you're going to be in a lot of our pictures. In fact, I have an idea."

Derek reached to take his phone from his back pocket and pressed the icons to get to the camera and flip the lens around. He picked Serena up again and she caught on. She put an arm around his neck and one around Emily's. Derek held the phone out and they could all see their faces on the screen. They smiled and Derek captured the image. He went over to sit at the computer and plugged in his phone. Serena moved towards him and crawled into his lap. She watched in fascination with a smile on her face as their image appeared on the computer monitor. Derek selected print.

Serena slithered from his lap to kneel in front of the printer, her smile getting brighter with each section of the picture that printed out. When it was finished, she gently took the paper in her hands and looked at it. "I like it! We look good."

Emily and Derek both laughed at that and Emily squatted down and said, "I really like it too. We do look good all together. We need to get a frame for it, but for now, we can put that on our refrigerator if you want."

"Can I keep it for my room?"

"Of course. We can print two. One for your room and one for our refrigerator. How about that?"

"Sounds good to me, Emily!"

Emily fought back the tears, remembering the last time Serena said that to her and thinking about what a crazy, miraculous few days it had been.

Derek printed another picture and they walked together to the kitchen. He lifted Serena up and let her put the picture up with magnets.

"Serena, would you like some lunch?" asked Emily.

Serena shook her head and said, "Not yet. Can I go look around upstairs?"

"Absolutely."

They followed Serena up the stairs and were surprised when she went in their room first. She went right to their dresser and started looking at the pictures. She was trying to learn about them. "Where was this?" she asked down the line of the dozen pictures on their long chest of drawers. They answered her questions. She picked up one of the frames, of the two of them so many years ago at the beach, cheeks pressed together and huge smiles on their faces. "This one is my favorite."

She carefully put the picture back and walked out the bedroom door and into the reading nook. She sat on the bench seat and looked at the full bookshelves on either side of her. "You have a lot of books. Have you read all of these books?"

"Yes," said Emily. She knelt down in front of one of the shelves. "Did you know that all of these books on these three shelves are books I think you would enjoy? I think you could read many of them and we could read the other ones with you."

Serena hopped off the bench and came and knelt next to Emily, bending her head to look at the spines of the books. She looked back at Emily with wide eyes, "And I can read them any time I want?"

Emily smiled at her, "Any time you want, sweet girl."

Serena nodded in satisfaction and stood, finally entering her room. "You said it would be a few days, but my stuff is already here."

Derek chimed in, "That's because I work faster than most people, sweetie."

Emily laughed at that and Serena gave Derek a smile. "I'm missing some bears. They're in my bag downstairs."

Derek went downstairs to retrieve the bag and returned. "Would you like to put these bears up and maybe unpack some of these boxes and organize your things?"

Serena nodded. They got her bears situated and she was happy to help put her books on the shelves, her games in the closet, her art supplies on her desk. She pointed out to Derek and Emily where certain toys and dolls went on her shelves. She asked after her special purple box and Derek found it in one of the larger boxes and handed it to her. She opened the lid and there were some papers and two framed pictures inside. One of her and her father, and one of her father and her mother, when her mother was pregnant.

"Is it okay if I put these on my dresser?"

"Of course, Serena." said Derek.

Emily recalled Serena's room and noted that she never saw those pictures, she would have remembered. Emily knelt next to Serena on the floor and asked to see the pictures. "Look how much you and your papa loved each other, and you have his happy, bright eyes," said Emily. "And your mother was very beautiful. You have her smile."

Serena looked at her with huge eyes and blinked slowly. "So you like them and it's okay if I put them on my dresser?" she asked again.

Emily blinked back tears. There was no mention of the pictures in Sarah's journal. Emily deduced that it was likely Serena who sensed that Sarah didn't like the pictures, or that she didn't feel comfortable having them out at Sarah's house. "Derek and I love them because they're a part of who you are. It's ok for you to put them wherever you want them, anywhere in this house, Serena."

Serena leaned her head against Emily's arm for a second and then took the pictures and put them on her dresser. She went to the bed, where she'd left the picture Derek had printed and brought it to her dresser, leaning it against the mirror. She turned around and smiled at both of them and they smiled back.

"OK," said Derek cheerfully, "It's mostly just clothes left!"

At that, Serena dissolved into the first tears Emily had ever seen her shed. Both Derek and Emily knelt down next to her. Serena wrapped her arms around Emily and Emily hugged her, rubbing her back. After a few moments, Serena stood back, and hiccuped at them, "Sarah changed my hair."

Emily looked at the outfit Serena was wearing, and how Serena had had no problem with her toys or books, and quickly caught on to Serena's line of thinking. She linked their hands and asked, "And Sarah picked out your clothes?"

Serena nodded.

"And it's important that you feel in control of how you look," stated Emily.

Serena nodded again.

"Then you will be, sweet girl. These are just clothes. They don't have to be your clothes. We can go shopping and you can pick out what you like."

Serena looked at Derek for confirmation and he nodded. "We'll go shopping tomorrow and you can let these clothes go."

Serena stepped to the side to hug Derek, keeping one hand in Emily's. "OK," she whispered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily and Serena went to the kitchen to figure out lunch while Derek smashed down the empty boxes upstairs and took the two boxes of clothing out to the garage.

"How about grilled cheese sandwiches, Serena?"

"I like those. Emily, will you give my old clothes to Mike? So other kids who need to borrow them like me have them? That would be nice, don't you think?"

Emily stared at her for a second before recovering, "That sounds like a great idea, Serena, and very, very thoughtful." In her head, Emily adjusted her thinking about this little girl a bit. She knew she could read, she knew she was well-spoken, but on the empathy and perception level, she was also ahead of the game. Additionally, she seemed innately resilient. Emily had the sense she was looking at herself as a child, if she had been scooped up and dropped into a loving home.

They had a nice lunch together and a pleasant afternoon. They taught Serena to play checkers and they looked in the backyard, which wasn't at its best at this time of the year. Together, Emily and Serena explored the books up in the reading nook, looking at the covers and reading the backs and making a stack of the ones Serena was most interested in. When Serena held up _A Little Princess_, Emily hesitated. Emily was an early reader, around four years old when she remembered words suddenly having meaning and making sense. And Jacob read to her, often reading books above her age level based on her maturity. She was five when he read her this book. The content and main character's name of this particular story could be both positive and difficult for Serena. She decided to go for full disclosure and see.

She gathered Serena in her arms and whispered, "I love this book. It's about a little girl named Sara who has some good times and hard times while trying to find a happy home after her papa dies. And did you know that one of her favorite things that comforts her is a doll that she names Emily? It was written a long time ago, so some of the words are old fashioned and not words we'd use to describe people today, but it's a wonderful story about a very strong and positive and kind little girl. It's a good book for us to read together, if you want." Serena looked at the cover of the book and back at Emily. She put it on the top of the pile.

Dinner time approached and Derek turned on some music. Serena happily helped pull the ends of green beans while Emily and Derek made a simple spaghetti dinner. Every once in awhile a good song would come on and Derek would dance with Emily in the kitchen or sing to them both, and Serena would giggle.

One time he slid over to Serena and said, "May I have this dance?" Serena nodded and Derek picked her up and danced her around the kitchen, her head resting on his shoulder.

And Emily's heart felt like it might burst again.

As 7:00 approached, Emily told Serena it was time to get ready for bed and they could all read together. Emily found Serena's toothbrush in her bag from Annette and got her a tube of toothpaste to put in the upstairs hallway bathroom. Serena brushed her teeth while Emily thought about what to do for pajamas. When Serena was done brushing, Emily took her to hers and Derek's bedroom and opened Derek's t-shirt drawer. Serena selected one of Derek's FBI t-shirts and changed. The shirt was huge on her her and hung nearly to her feet. It was adorable.

Emily and Derek settled themselves on Serena's bed with their backs against the wall. Serena crawled up and settled herself so she was partially sitting on both of their laps, the copy of _A Little Princess_ in her hand. Emily reached into her own back pocket and grabbed her phone. She got the camera ready and held out her arm, tilting it at an angle so their faces and the "FBI" on Serena's t-shirt were clearly visible. They all smiled at the camera and Emily snapped the shot.

Emily read the first chapter of _A Little Princess_ and Serena seemed unconcerned about the main character's name or the continual use of the word "papa." She gave a little smile whenever the doll named Emily was mentioned and seemed intrigued by the story.

Serena surprisingly didn't need reassurance at bedtime. She only asked if she could come to their room if she needed them. Emily wondered about the nightmares that Serena thought happened but never remembered. They weren't in Sarah's journal either and Emily thought that they were something she'd only told Serena about in order to cover her tracks for Jessica's murder. Serena seemed perfectly comfortable in their house, snuggling into her bed and giving them hugs goodnight. They both hugged her and told her how happy they were that she was there. She yawned and responded sleepily, "I like it here. I'm happy, too."

After Serena was asleep, Derek followed Emily to their bedroom where he shut the door most of the way and flopped back on the bed. She laid herself down more carefully next to him on her side and rested her hand on his chest. They looked at each other and smiled, both a little teary, both feeling good about how the day had gone, both a little exhausted, both happy to have Serena with them.

Derek spoke first "She seems pretty good, doesn't she? She seems to trust us, and based on bedtime, I think she's pretty comfortable here, don't you think? It was a good day. We did a good job, didn't we?"

Emily laughed lightly and leaned over to kiss him. "I've never heard you sound uncertain about your own perceptions of a situation like this before. We did a really good job, she seems comfortable and happy to be here, and she adores you." She kissed him again, "And I adore you."

"You're so good with her, Em. You knew just what she was thinking about her clothes. Do you think her relationship with Sarah is going to be a recurring problem for her?"

Emily thought, "I don't know for sure, but I actually don't think so. Sarah never mentioned those pictures in her journal, or the clothes. Only Serena's hair, and I think that was because it was the thing she had to do deceptively. Serena is perceptive. She probably sensed Sarah wasn't thrilled with those pictures and put them away in the box on her own. She accepted her hair under the premise that it was easier because she was four, she didn't understand hair dye and that her hair wouldn't magically turn to a dark brown because of braids. And I bet Sarah just bought the clothes when Serena was at school, and again she just accepted them. The other behavior of Sarah's was loving, I saw that."

"So….?" Derek asked for clarification.

"So I think Serena had long ago accepted her mother's death. She never knew her mother. I think she had a loving relationship with her father, and I think she never probably felt like she could mourn his death around Sarah. I think, if anything, we're more likely to see grief about her father's death than we are to see recurring issues surrounding Sarah. Serena trusts us. She didn't agree with everything we did today and she let us know. She wanted to know what we thought about her pictures and she knows we accept them as part of her. She wasn't defiant, but she wasn't overly accommodating either. She knew she could tell us how she felt. That's a very good thing, my beautiful man."

Derek kissed her and said, "I just want to wrap my arms around you and hug you tightly, Em."

Emily got off the bed and stood, beckoning Derek to stand up, too. He did and she said, "Put your arms around me."

He complied and she said, "A little higher."

Derek shifted his arms and Emily nodded and put her arms around his neck. "Ok, now hug away. It's all good, love," she whispered.

He strengthened his hold on her and buried his face in her neck. After a few seconds, she could feel his tears on her skin. "If you had told me the day you left for London that we would eventually be here, I wouldn't have believed you, Em."

She turned her head to kiss his neck and whispered thickly, tears of her own falling, "Best love story ever, Derek Morgan."


	17. Chapter 17

Emily and Derek awoke the next morning when they heard the toilet flushing down the hall. Emily looked at her clock and saw that it was almost 7:45am; Serena had slept peacefully through the night. She smiled when she heard little feet walking toward their room.

Serena stood in the doorway with her hands behind her back and looked curiously at them. "Am I supposed to let you keep sleeping?" she whispered.

Emily sat up in bed, "No, sweet girl. We're awake. Did you just wake up?"

Serena shook her head. "A little bit ago. I was drawing at my desk." She took her hand from behind her back and walked towards the bed to hand Emily her drawing. Derek sat up to see it, too. Serena crawled up on the foot their bed and watched them look at the picture.

Everything about the drawing was advanced for her age. Using colored pencils, Serena had drawn the three of them in front of a house, this house. In the image, Serena was standing between them, and she drew herself nearly the same size as them, which was a good reflection of positive self-esteem, Emily knew. She was actually a bit surprised by that. _Resilient, indeed, _she thought. They were all smiling in the picture. The clouds in the sky were shaped like hearts. At the bottom of the page in neat print, Serena had written, "I really like it here."

Emily and Derek both smiled at Serena. "We love this beautiful picture, Serena. It makes us feel very happy. You are quite an artist!" said Emily. Serena beamed at them. "I knew you could read, but I didn't know you could write, too!" Emily continued.

Serena hopped off the bed and skipped out the door to her room. Derek and Emily took the moment to look at each other in surprise. "Wow," said Derek quietly.

Serena returned with her special purple box and climbed back up on the bed. She opened the lid and took out one of the pieces of paper. "Sarah taught me the dictionary game. I used to play it a lot when she was doing her work. She would give me words to look up and I did, and then I would write down my favorite ones. These are my special words because I like the way they sound and look."

She handed them a lined sheet of paper filled with about fifty different, complex words, all written in her neat print. Serena knelt up, leaned forward and pointed at the word _onomatopoeia._ "Onomatopoeia. I like that one best because of the spelling. It's when a word sounds like a noise. Like 'quack' is a word, but it's also the sound a duck makes."

"You know what all of these words mean?" asked Emily quietly.

"Yes," said Serena enthusiastically, nodding her head with a smile. "Ask me!"

"Denouement," said Emily.

"D-e-n-o-u-e-m-e-n-t. When you solve a mystery!" said Serena loudly.

"Gossamer," said Derek

"G-o-s-s-a-m-e-r. Like a tiny piece of thread. Like a spider weaves."

"Resplendent," said Emily.

Serena looked at her and grinned. "That's not on my list. But I think r-e-s-p-." Serena paused and thought, "l-e-n-d-e-n-t? But I don't know what it means."

Emily smiled, "You spelled it correctly. It means 'shining brightly,' which is exactly what you're doing, Serena." Emily handed the paper back to Serena and said, "I love your special words, sweet girl, and I'm so glad you shared them with us."

Serena smiled happily. She put the paper back in her box and went to return the box to her room.

"Holy shit, Derek," Emily whispered, laughing quietly.

"Exactly," he laughed back.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily and Serena went downstairs to make breakfast while Derek showered. The first thing Emily did was put Serena's picture on the fridge and Serena grinned. She contentedly sat at the kitchen counter while Emily pulled out bacon and eggs, just looking around the room and taking in more details.

Emily thought about the conversation her and Derek had the night before about wanting more information about Serena's life with her father, and her life with Sarah.

_They wanted to talk to Serena's preschool teacher, Amy, and with Annette a bit more. Derek also wanted to go over to Judy's house and explain about Serena to see if they could introduce her to Ella. And he wanted to call his mom and sisters and explain so that they could Skype with them that evening with Serena._

_Emily felt fine, almost completely normal with just a little bit of soreness. But since she really hadn't been out of the house all that much on her own, and she didn't want to test those waters on a long shopping trip with a four year old, they decided to ask Garcia to drive Emily and Serena to the mall to do the clothing shopping while Derek took care of the phone calls._

_She texted the picture of them together on the bed to the team, Mike and Julia and said, "Things are going great!"_

_She sent a separate text to Penelope: "Serena needs a new wardrobe. You up for some shopping tomorrow?"_

_Emily's phone started ringing almost instantly and Garcia squealed when she answered. "OK, first of all, my heart just melted into a puddle on the floor looking at that picture. And now you're asking me to take a little girl shopping for a new wardrobe? We're going to blow the roof off your credit card limit, Em3. I'll see you at ten tomorrow morning..."_

Emily started the bacon in the pan and regarded Serena sitting at the kitchen counter. "Serena, do you remember our friends you met at the police station last Monday?"

"Yes. I met Derek first. And then I met Aaron, but you all call him Hotch. I like Hotch better because it's interesting. Jennifer was there and she has such a friendly face and she told me I could call her JJ. I remember Spencer and Dave. They seemed nice. And I met Penelope. I liked her hair and her glasses and she had a nice smile."

Emily shook her head and grinned, reminding herself to never underestimate this little girl's memory. "Well, Derek needs to do a little bit of work this morning and Penelope loves to shop. So Derek and I were thinking that Penelope could take us shopping to buy your clothes. What do you think?"

Serena smiled. "OK! I liked Penelope's dress. Do you think the store will have dresses like that for me?"

_Oh, Dear God_, thought Emily, recalling that dress and laughing on the inside. Out loud she said, "I'm sure we'll find many things you like, Serena."

At that moment, Derek bounded down the stairs and bellowed, "Bacon!"

Emily and Serena looked at each other and laughed. Derek came over and kissed Emily on the cheek, then reached to ruffle Serena's hair. "Your turn for the shower, Em. I'll finish up breakfast."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Penelope showed up giddy and excited. She hugged Serena and said it was good to see her, then pulled a notebook with a furry cover out of her purse. "Now, Serena, I understand that we're starting from scratch here. There are lots of stores at the mall and we need to narrow our scope. I made you a fashion book and you can look through it and tell me what things you like best. Then we'll know where to go!"

Serena followed Penelope to the couch, with her wide-eyed look and a smile on her face. She sat next to Penelope and started looking through the pictures. On the third page, Serena pointed and Penelope exclaimed, "Oh, that is definitely you!"

Derek and Emily went around the corner into the dining area and laughed quietly.

Penelope drove them to McLean to let Serena loose in Hanna Andersson first, based on the clothes Serena showed her she liked. Emily hadn't paid much attention to the clothing from Sarah's house, but knew that most of it was simple and pastel based on the quick glance she took. Serena, it turned out, loved bright, colorful dresses with coordinating colorful tights and leggings, and she looked adorable in them. Every time she tried on something she liked, she looked at herself in the mirror excitedly and giggled. Emily and Penelope continually smiled at her and each other throughout the day.

Serena on her part was joyful, thankful and flexible. When Emily suggested she pick her four favorite dresses of the dozen she'd selected, she didn't complain or even act disappointed; she carefully contemplated the dresses and chose four. When they checked out of that store she hugged Emily's leg and said "Thank you, Emily."

Knowing the seasons would be changing soon, and knowing that Serena would need more than just dresses, Penelope suggested other stores and other selections besides long-sleeved dresses. They bought practical necessities like underwear, socks and a jacket, too. Through it all, Serena happily skipped through the mall and stores, holding Penelope's hand or Emily's, and Emily marveled at how open Serena was to new people and accepting them into her life.

They ate lunch together and Serena asked a series of questions about the different members of the team and about Jack and Henry, making the connection that Jack was Hotch's son and Henry was JJ's son. She seemed fascinated by the whole thing, about being in a home where the adults were connected to so many other people.

Their last stop was a shoe store. Emily and Penelope were sitting across from Serena waiting for the clerk to bring them out her shoe selections. "After this, I think we're about done, Serena." said Emily

Serena looked at Emily and nodded. "Can I change into one of my new outfits before we go home so I can surprise Daddy?"

Emily's heart skipped a beat and she felt like she was going to fall right out of her chair at the sound of that word coming from Serena's lips. It was so soon. She smiled and remained non-reactive, though. "Of course, Serena! I think Daddy would like a surprise like that."

Serena smiled at her and said, "I think so, too."

Penelope stood up and turned, pretending to look through her purse while wiping the tears from her eyes. Emily wanted to join her, but instead took a deep breath and said, "Here come your shoes, sweet girl."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

When they arrived back at the house, Serena undid her belt on her booster seat and bounded out the car door and up the front steps. Not wanting to miss this, Emily and Garcia quickly followed. Serena opened the front door and called out excitedly, "Daddy, we're home. Come see my dress!"

Derek came out of the den and wiped the stunned expression off his face quickly. He smiled at Serena and said, "Wow, Serena. That is a beautiful dress. I love it!"

"Me, too!" Serena giggled.

Penelope took Serena's hand and said, "Come with me, my lovely. Let's go get your other bags out of the car."

Serena walked with Penelope back out to the car and Emily stepped forward to wrap her arms around Derek, who was blinking back tears. "Hey, Daddy," she whispered.

Derek laughed and kissed her. "I didn't think it would happen this fast, but I was reading and it's not surprising. Kids who don't have to worry about visiting biological parents often transition fast, from what I read. What about you?"

Emily shook her head, "Still Emily. I'm not surprised. She had a stronger connection to me with that name than she did to you with yours. Plus she hasn't had a father in her life for awhile, and she's only been without the only mother figure she's ever known for a few days."

Derek kissed her again, "It will happen, Em."

"I know. Did you learn anything new today?"

"Not much. Everyone knew Serena was bright and could read and Amy knew she could write, but no one knew the extent. Sarah didn't talk about it and when Annette went to check in, they were always places where Serena was distracted and outdoors after October. Annette did say that Serena came to them in August able to read. She didn't have much on Serena's life with her father, except that according to neighbors they were a quiet duo who never had people over, but Serena seemed happy. She was in a small home-based daycare center during that time and Annette said that the elderly woman who ran the center called Serena intelligent, delightful and kind. That sounds about right."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While they put away Serena's new clothes, they talked to her about Derek's work, simply explaining that he helped catch people who broke the law, and about how he often had to travel for a few days at a time, but didn't really know which days those would be. He assured Serena that he would call as often as he could when he was gone and would always be thinking about her. She was neutral about the news. She didn't really have a context for what that would feel like, so she didn't have much of a reaction. Emily knew it would likely become a part of Serena's life that she accepted as just the way things were at their house, much like other kids did who had a parent who traveled for work.

Serena asked Emily if she had to travel for work, too. "Almost never, Serena. And for now, I'm not going to be traveling at all. I'll be home with you this coming week and we'll find you a preschool you like and I'll start back to work next week when you start school. I'll be there to get you after school every day, some days a little later than others, but I'll let you know when those days will be."

"What kind of preschool?"

Emily had been thinking about this a lot throughout the day. Of the three schools her and Derek had listed as potentials, one stuck out in her mind as the best place, at least based on their website and reviews. It had a diverse student population, almost no staff turnover, and went from pre-K to 8th grade. The pre-K and Kindergarten program were largely play-based with a nature focus, before switching over to a rich academic curriculum with much room for self-paced learning. The parent base was a lot of military and government families. Serena would fit in, and would have peers with similar circumstances in terms of parents who might travel. Plus, it continued through eighth grade, which felt much better than putting Serena in a school this spring only to switch it for Kindergarten in the fall.

"There are a few we might visit. I'll call them tomorrow to figure out if they have space and when we can go. Sound good?"

"Sounds good, Emily." Serena continued to help put away the rest of her clothes, content but quietly thinking.

"Hey, Serena. Judy from across the street says we can call and she'll bring her little girl Ella over to meet you, if you want. Would you like that?" asked Derek.

Serena's eyes opened wide and she took a deep breath. "Can she stay and play?"

Emily smiled at the look on her face. "Of course, if Ella would like to. Let's see how it goes, OK sweet girl?"

XXXXXXXX

How it went was magical. The two girls clicked immediately while Judy stayed and visited. They sat comfortably in the living room listening to the giggling going on upstairs in Serena's room. Derek would go up and check on them frequently and report back that they were playing with dolls or drawing.

Judy was overjoyed that Serena was there. There were boys on the block for her two older sons to play with, but no girls near Ella's age. They talked preschools. Her own kids went to an Episcopal school, but Judy knew about Walden Country School, the top one Emily and Derek were considering. Everything she'd heard was positive.

At one point Judy and Emily went to check on things upstairs since it had gotten quiet. They found Ella and Serena sitting on the floor next to each other, their backs leaning against the bed, Ella brushing a dolls hair and listening intently while Serena excitedly read _Charlotte's Web_ to her. They stepped away from the door and Judy looked at Emily and said, "She's reading chapter books? Wow."

"Yeah, we've been saying that a lot the past two days."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

After dinner, they Skyped with Fran, who was as entranced with Serena as they were. Serena was equally excited by her. "Can I call you Nana? I've never had a Nana. Did you know I like living here? Can I show you my new clothes?"

Derek's sisters were at the house and they were equally as enchanted by Serena's charm. When Fran mentioned that she couldn't wait to come out and see Serena in person, Derek looked at Emily, who nodded. "How about this coming weekend? We'll get you a plane ticket."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Monday came and Derek went to work after they all had breakfast together. Emily and Serena enjoyed the day. They took a walk to the little shopping district by the house, had hot chocolate at the cafe and walked around the neighborhood. They had a nice lunch together at home and Derek called to check in.

While Serena played in her room after lunch, Emily called Walden Country School and learned they actually had one spot open in the Pre-K classroom. The director was warm and friendly and asked a few questions about Serena and them. She told Emily to fill out an online application and email it in and that they were welcome to come on a tour the next morning at ten. Emily filled out the application immediately and sent it off.

She wandered up to Serena's room and found her drawing again. "Hey, sweet girl. I was wondering if you'd like to go pick up Henry from his school and he could come over and play."

Serena jumped up excitedly. "Yes!"

Emily laughed, "OK. Let me just check in with JJ and Will."

She sent a text to Will, since he was off on Mondays: "Serena and I want to grab Henry from school if that's ok."

Will responded quickly and said sure and that he'd be by around 5:30 to get him and meet Serena.

"OK, Serena. Let's go get Henry!"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

JJ had explained thoroughly about Serena to Henry and he accepted Serena without any questions at all. Serena didn't seem at all put out by the fact that Henry knew the house so well, or that he was affectionate with Emily. This surprised Emily. What she concluded in her mind was that Serena's resiliency centered around her ability to accept a situation and remain firmly positive about it - unless she felt personally wronged, like she did with her hair and clothes and pictures; then she would want to speak up.

Serena and Henry played together as well as Serena and Ella had, though their play was different. Henry loved pretend play and opened the bench seat in the reading nook to show Serena some of his capes and superhero accessories, along with other toys he kept at Emily and Derek's house. Within no time, they were both in capes and Henry created an intricate story about bad guys stealing money that they had to stop. Serena interjected with her own ideas and storyline and their game seamlessly flowed. Both children were flexible and there were no arguments, just a lot of fun. And much thumping and running upstairs and down as they acted out their game.

After an hour of this, they showed up in the den where Emily was doing some paperwork, capes still on and both wearing Batman masks as well. "Can we have a snack and watch a show, Emily?" asked Henry.

Serena turned to look at Henry before she turned back to Emily and smiled, "Can we, Mommy?"

Emily couldn't decide if she wanted to faint or cry, but she kept it together. "You sure can, but can I get a picture of you both first? You look so great!"

Henry put his arm immediately over Serena's shoulder and Serena followed suit. They smiled and Emily snapped the picture with her phone. "That looks great! Why don't you go ahead and turn on the TV, Henry. You can show Serena how to work the remote and I'll bring you your snack."

Then she quickly sent a text to Derek, JJ and Garcia with the picture attached: "The Batman on the left just called me Mommy!"


	18. Chapter 18

Emily and Serena entered the grounds of Walden Country School excited and overwhelmed. There were ponds with ducks and snapping turtles, there were chickens, there were gardens and rolling fields and a playground. Emily could only imagine what it would look like in the spring. Once they crested the hill, Emily could see sports fields and basketball courts in the distance. The original building looked like a miniature castle, and additional brick buildings and cottages had been added in a manner that made them look like they'd always been there.

"This is a school?" asked Serena incredulously.

Emily laughed and said, "I think so!"

They walked up and through the main doors and entered the administration building. Kathryn Hansen, the director of the school, was there waiting for them.  
"Emily?" she asked. And when Emily nodded, Kathryn bent down towards Serena, "And this must be Serena! You can call me Ms. Kathryn." She stuck out her hand and Serena shook it and said, "It's nice to meet you. This is a beautiful school," surprising Kathryn.

Kathryn smiled and said, "It's very nice to meet you, too. I like this school very much. Did you know I've been here for over twenty years?" before standing again. She looked at Emily, "Let's bring Serena over to one of our Pre-K rooms. We have three, and this is the one with a space open. The teacher's name is Ms. Charlotte, Serena, and she is fabulous."

They walked out of the main building and down the brick pathway to one of the structures that looked like a cottage. Kathryn stopped to point out the different areas of the school. "This is our Pre-K and Kindergarten wing. Our main building houses our first through fifth grade. The other wing is for sixth through eighth grade. There's a lot of supervised multi-aged curriculum. The eight graders, for instance, are in charge of running the gardening program for the Pre-K.

Kathryn opened the door to the cottage marked "Ms. Charlotte's Room." As soon as she glanced inside, Emily thought, _This is the place Serena needs to be._ Emily knew that each Pre-K class had eighteen children. They also had an aide and a rotating army of parent volunteers who were asked to volunteer two hours per week. She saw kids playing in sections of the room that included a science area, a block area and an art and reading area, a dress up corner, and kids working on a cooking project with an adult in a kitchen area.

"Our program runs from 8:00-3:00, with optional after care available. Lunch is included. All three of our Pre-K classes share an outdoor space and there are several times a day where they are free to go inside and out, choosing their activities. There are some planned, but open-ended indoor and outdoor lessons throughout the day. All of the different areas in the room and the centers we have set up outside are designed to enhance learning through play. We believe that social skills build the strongest foundation for learning.

A kind young woman with a cheerful face came over to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Ms. Charlotte. And you must be Emily and Serena!"

Serena took one look at her and instantly felt comfortable, much like Emily did. "Hi, Ms. Charlotte. I like your room! Can I play?"

Charlotte invited Serena to play and explore and Emily observed for a bit with a smile on her face.

"Let's go talk about your application," said Kathryn.

Serena had no reservations. When Emily told her she'd be back in awhile, Serena simply smiled and said, "OK, Mommy."

Emily followed her out of the cottage and back onto the path.

"So Derek is an FBI agent for the BAU and you're a Vulnerable Victims Consultant? I read up on the BAU, and I looked at your website. It sounds like interesting, but difficult work." said Kathryn.

Emily nodded in agreement.

"You say Serena is bright and advanced. Can you elaborate?"

"She reads chapter books at a 3rd-4th grade level but could probably handle higher if it was appropriate content. She can write, she knows the spelling and meaning of some pretty complex words." Emily shrugged her shoulders. "We learn new things every day about her. I know she didn't feel entirely comfortable with the situation in her last foster home and that she's comfortable with us and she seems to blossom more every day and share more of herself. I can tell you that I think she is very gifted with very high emotional intelligence. It's a rare combination and I've never seen anything quite like it. She converses well with adults, and then can fade into age-appropriate peer play that she enjoys, and then can morph again into an avid and advanced learner. But what we want for her is a safe place to play and enjoy life and grow at this point. Can I ask how is it you have a space open?"

"Complete luck. We only carry a wait list of five children per grade. We hardly ever get more than two kids in off that list. But we had a family with triplets this year that ended up moving, and a child whose parents decided they wanted a more academic environment for their preschooler. We lost a student unexpectedly this past Friday due to his father's last-minute transfer, the last person on the wait list wasn't interested in the spot, and then you called on Monday. The spot's yours if you want it."

Emily laughed lightly. "I really need to go buy a lottery ticket. Luck and fate have been playing quite a starring role in my life this past week."

Emily sat in Kathryn's office filling out the remaining paperwork and chatting with the woman for about an hour. Last week when Emily had called her clients to reschedule things, she'd instinctively made her long days on Mondays and Thursdays, because those were the days she was least likely to be needed by JJ and Will. She decided to keep things that way, and signed Serena up for the after school program on those days. Other than that, she planned to arrange her schedule to be at school by 3:00. She signed up to work in the classroom on Tuesday mornings. Her and Derek had already talked about this part of the plan and he hoped he'd be able to occasionally volunteer in the classroom as well.

Kathryn talked to her about starting Serena the very next day, rather than waiting until Monday. She had a good point: if there were any issues that needed to be addressed during the transition, it would be better for Emily to be home than as far away as Baltimore doing cognitive interviews. She said she'd talk to Serena and Derek about it and call by the end of the day to let her know.

When they went back to the classroom to get Serena, Emily saw Serena in the dress up area playing with two other little girls. Serena smiled at her, but continued playing. They were in princess dresses and huge shoes and were laughing and pretending they were getting ready to go to a party.

Charlotte approached them with a smile and a paper in her hand. "Serena is really wonderful and enthusiastic. I hope you're going to take the space. I would love to have her in this class."

Emily grinned. "We're taking it. I don't know if she's going to start this week or next Monday, but we'll be here."

"Fantastic! Though that means I may need to do a little research in order to learn how to best keep up with her."

Emily and Kathryn both raised their eyebrows.

Charlotte laughed a little and continued, "We do different prompts in our coloring area. Today's was, 'How are you feeling?' Serena gravitated there first and drew with Lexi over there," Charlotte pointed to one of the little girls in the dress up area. "We use recycled paper discarded from other classrooms in our drawing area. This is the picture Serena drew." Charlotte held up a picture Serena had drawn of her face with a huge smile on it and "I am happy" written on the bottom.

Emily smiled at Charlotte, still a little confused. Charlotte continued, "This paper came from a third grade classroom. It's a basic long division worksheet." Charlotte turned the paper over and Emily saw on the line next to 'Name' it said 'Serena' in her neat writing. She saw the example box on the top of the page, and then ten division problems. All of them had answers, but no work was shown. "Our kids often write on the worksheet side of the paper, for fun, just pretending. That's what I thought Serena was doing, then I looked closer. All of the answers are correct."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Serena gave a resounding "Yes!" to starting school the next day, but Emily didn't get the chance to talk with Derek about it much. He called when they were pulling up to the house to say there was a case in New Mexico. He briefly talked to them both, told them that he loved them and that he'd be home soon and call when he could.

While Serena played in her room, Emily called Kathryn. She nicely stressed that she didn't want Serena to be treated any differently than any other child in the room. If there were worksheets she found and completed, that was fine. If she asked for more information or more complex material, that was fine as well. But ultimately they chose that school for Serena to be a child, to make friends and enjoy life she told Kathryn. Kathryn assured her that they understood her perspective and that they would love to have Serena at the school and they would follow the little girl's lead. Emily thanked her and told her they'd be there in the morning.

That afternoon, Emily pulled out her chess set and asked Serena if she'd like to learn a new game. Serena was intrigued and enthusiastic. She listened to the rules and she tried to play. Her moves were defensive, but she quickly understood the basics of game. After awhile Emily put the chessboard away and they cooked dinner together, laughing and being silly and enjoying each other. After dinner and after her bath, they snuggled together and read more of _A Little Princess_.

And that night, when Emily was tucking Serena in and giving her a goodnight hug, Serena whispered, "I love you, Mommy."

Emily blinked back tears and kissed her forehead. "I love you, too, Serena."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning Emily stood with Serena at the front door of Ms. Charlotte's classroom. All of the Pre-K parents from all three classrooms were out there, mingling and talking. They were friendly towards Emily and Serena. When Charlotte opened the door, the kids lined up and Serena joined right in. She tossed a "Bye, Mommy" over her shoulder as she entered the room.

"I see they have you paying out the ear for ducks and turtles, too" said a familiar voice from behind Emily.

Emily turned and saw the face of Michelle Stone, an Alexandria prosecutor. She smiled at her, "Michelle! I didn't know this was where your kids went to school. It's good to see you!"

"I have one in Pre-K, in Ms. Maria's room, and one is second grade. It's a good thing my husband makes the big bucks. It really is a wonderful school and worth every penny. It's good to see you, too, Emily. It's also good to know that asking a judge for a recess in order to write a quick character reference paid off. You got her."

Emily laughed. "The top thing on my to-do list today was to write all of the people who gave character references and thank them. Thank you, Michelle."

"It was absolutely my pleasure. How's the head?"

"Thank you for not pressing matters when I called you last week; I knew you had things figured out. The head is good. I'm actually going to get my stitches out today. It's going to look a little funky when the hair grows out, but other than that I'm fine. Far better than fine, actually."

Michelle nodded and smiled. "I'm really glad to hear that. You deserve the best, Emily. I'm due in court soon, but I'll see you next Wednesday for those interviews. If things go well, maybe we'll have time to grab lunch."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Friday morning, while Emily and Serena were eating breakfast, Derek called to say the case was finished, that they'd actually caught the unsub around 1:00am and had decided to get a little sleep, but they were on the plane now and should land around 9:00am. He had to do some paperwork, but would be home in time to go with Emily to get Serena from school, would be there for Annette's home visit and there to go pick up his mother from the airport that evening. He talked to Serena and asked about school and she excitedly rattled off details.

All reports from Charlotte for the past two days were that Serena fit seamlessly into the classroom. She was enthusiastic and kind to everyone. She happily flitted between groups of different children doing different activities, and the other kids in her grade had welcomed her into the fold without blinking an eye, for the most part. There was one little girl in a different room who tried to exclude Serena from a game that first day, but when Serena had only shrugged her shoulders and said, "OK. You seem like you're a lot of fun. Maybe we can play later," and walked away, that little girl's power had quickly deflated and she invited Serena to join in the game. Charlotte had shook her head and said, "She's really something else."

Though Emily wasn't entirely surprised by these reports, she still marveled at this little sprite who had entered her life.

Emily's phone rang on the drive home from dropping Serena at school and she pulled over when she saw Dr. Rodgers on the caller ID. Heart hammering and tears in her eyes, she answered the phone.

"Good news, Emily! Your cell-free fetal DNA result came in and it's negative. All signs point to a healthy baby in there. Do you want to know the gender?"

Emily laughed through her tears. "It's negative?"

"It's negative."

"Thank you. No, I don't think we want to know the gender. We haven't really talked about that yet. I'll talk to Derek and let you know. Thank you so, so much."

"My pleasure, Emily. I'll see you next Friday."

Emily looked at her watch. She pulled back on the road and turned away from home, heading towards Quantico. When she arrived, she went to Garcia's office.

"Em3!" Garcia exclaimed, standing to give her a hug. "You're positively beaming. What's up?"

Emily smiled. "My fetal screening test came back negative. The odds of any chromosomal abnormalities are almost nil." Emily placed her hand over the zipper on her jeans. "Looks like a healthy baby in here!"

Garcia smiled and cupped Emily's cheeks in her hands, "Was there ever any doubt? You remember last summer when Jacob said to go and sing your pretty music for the world to hear? You did. And now you're belting out the tunes, Em."

Emily teared up and laughed. "I wanted to tell Derek in person and didn't want to wait."

"The plane just landed. They should be here soon."

Emily stood against the wall outside the bank of elevators, waiting, smiling like a loon. People who knew her looked at her curiously and said hello. When the elevator dinged and the doors opened and she saw the team, she stepped forward. Derek stepped off the elevator and saw her immediately, giving her a stunned smile. Emily rushed to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"So much for discretion at the FBI," Derek laughed.

"I really don't care anymore," laughed Emily. "The fetal screening was negative."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Derek and Emily walked together onto the Walden Country School campus about thirty minutes before school got out so he could meet Kathryn and look around. She'd filled him in on every detail he'd missed the past couple of days. When he saw the school buildings and the grounds, he said, "Wow, Em. You described it, and I saw the photos online, but I didn't really picture it quite like this."

"It's pretty unbelievable. Wait until you see the classroom and meet Charlotte."

They entered the administration area and Kathryn saw them through the window in her office, quickly coming out.

"Derek Morgan? It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm glad you're here; I was actually just about to call you, Emily. Come on into my office."

They entered the office and took seats, and Kathryn returned to her desk chair. She turned her computer monitor so it was facing them. "We have cameras in all of our classrooms. It's precautionary. When you have high-ranking government officials sending their children here, it's best to cover all your bases. Charlotte sent me a message to watch something that just happened in her classroom. The children have a class meeting at 2:00 every day to talk about any issues and figure out ways to resolve them."

Kathryn hit play on the video and Emily and Derek nervously watched, wondering if something was wrong. The class was sitting in a circle on the floor. They watched Charlotte say that Daniel had an issue he wrote on the agenda and asked Daniel if he'd like to talk. Daniel started crying and said he was angry at Kumi in the other room because of something that happened in the sand box that morning. When Charlotte asked him if he could describe what happened, Daniel shook his head and said he didn't remember exactly how it happened.

They watched Serena stand up and move to take a seat in front of Daniel. She took hold of his hands. She asked him to close his eyes and to think back to the sand box. She asked him what he was doing and he responded. They watched Serena guide him through a cognitive interview until the story was told and he remembered. When he was done, Daniel stared at Serena. "You did a good job, Daniel," was all she said before standing and returning to her place in the circle.

Kathryn paused the video and Derek and Emily turned to stare at each other for a second before looking back at Kathryn. "It's like you said, Emily. I've never seen anything quite like her."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Serena exited the classroom, she spotted Derek immediately. "Daddy!" she shouted and bounded into his arms. "Come see my classroom. Come meet Ms. Charlotte!"

Derek laughed and said, "I can't wait." He put Serena on the ground and held her hand, letting Serena lead him into the classroom. She showed him everything, she introduced him to Charlotte, she introduced him so some of her friends who were also lingering with their parents.

They didn't get to stay long since Annette's home visit was scheduled for 3:30. They rushed home and arrived at the house the same time as she did. The home visit was pleasant and Annette was pleased to see Serena so open and happy. Derek took Serena up to her room to play while Emily and Annette chatted about Serena's impressive academic and social abilities. Annette was stunned, but said she trusted Derek and Emily to do what was right for Serena, that she really had no experience with something like that, but she would support them with anything they needed to the best of her ability.

Derek left soon after Annette to go to the airport and get his mom while Serena and Emily stayed home to start making dinner. Serena was boundlessly excited about meeting Nana.

"Where's Daddy's daddy?" she asked Emily.

"He died a long time ago, Serena, when Daddy was just a little boy," said Emily.

"Oh. That's sad. It's like my papa." Serena looked down and then back up at Emily. "Where's your Mommy and Daddy?"

Emily took a deep breath, "My dad died several years ago. My mom lives in different countries for her work. She's far away right now, but she is a person who makes a lot of poor choices and I don't see her because of that."

"Did she change your hair?" asked Serena, remembering the last time Emily had used the phrase "poor choices"

Emily smiled at her, "No, but she didn't like me very much just the way I was, so it's a little bit similar."

Serena hopped of the kitchen bar stool and walked to Emily, wrapping her arms around Emily's legs. "It's good we're all together," she said quietly.

Emily squatted down in front of Serena, "It's the best thing, Serena. I think we were meant to find each other."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

When Derek entered the house with Fran, Serena ran to her and exclaimed, "Hi, Nana!" Fran blinked back tears and bent to give Serena a hug, which Serena happily returned. They bonded instantly, Serena peppering Fran with questions throughout dinner and Fran giving her answers with a lot of humor that kept them all laughing.

Derek hung out upstairs while Serena took a bath and Fran helped Emily do the dishes. "You know, Emily, you certainly know how to keep an old lady like me on the verge of a happiness-induced heart attack."

Emily laughed and rubbed Fran's back. "It's certainly been a whirlwind lately."

"Derek told me in the car that you two got engaged and I see your ring, which is beautiful. When's the wedding?"

"I'm honestly not sure anymore. We've been just a tad bit preoccupied and haven't talked about it much, but when we do, we'll update you."

Fran nodded. "Serena's certainly something special."

"She certainly is."

That evening, all three of them tucked Serena into bed. Fran gave her a hug goodnight and said, "Tomorrow morning, you come and wake me up. I'll be on the couch downstairs. We'll let Mommy and Daddy sleep in."

When Emily and Derek wandered downstairs after 9:00 the next morning, they found Serena and Fran snuggled together on the couch watching the end of the movie Matilda. Fran paused the movie and said to them, "Your sisters loved this book when they were younger and I saw the movie on Netflix so we decided to watch it."

Serena piped up, "Mommy, Matilda is like us. Her mom wasn't very nice but she found a happy home, just like this one! We can't do magic like Matilda, but that's OK."

Derek wrapped his arms around Emily and whispered in her ear, "I think maybe you can both do a little bit of magic."


	19. Chapter 19

_Note from the author: Just want to give a shout out to all of the positive reviews and feedback. I love this story, too! My favorite part about finally publishing my writing is when I wake up in the morning to feedback. Alas, my college's quarter starts next week and I must get back to work. I'm hoping to finish this one up before then. I have another idea in the works, but it will be a slower pace come next Monday. My two stories were the result of an unexpected surgery that canceled my summer plans. Anyway, thank you all again! _

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

"April, what do you hear?" asked Emily softly.

April was quiet for several seconds. "There were birds. I could hear the sounds of leaves crunching underneath me. There's a buzzing noise." She paused an looked to her left. "It's coming from my left side."

"Can you place what's making the sound?" asked Emily.

"No...Yes. It's like the sound a cell phone makes when it's on vibrate."

"Like a cell phone on vibrate was ringing?" asked Emily.

"No. Short buzzes. Like getting a text. I heard it a few times."

It was Wednesday morning, and Emily was working for Michelle Stone, conducting cognitive interviews on four women who had been dragged off various hiking trails in the area, bound, gagged and blindfolded and raped at knife point. They had a suspect, Matthew Barry, in custody, had enough evidence for a strong case for the fourth rape, where he'd left behind DNA, but Michelle wanted Emily to do these interviews to see if there was some way to build a stronger connection with the other three assaults. Matthew Barry was claiming he'd heard about the rapes and decided to copy them, but that he'd only committed the one before getting caught.

The second victim was the first to mention the buzzing noise, something none of them had mentioned before, and Emily had shifted her focus to sounds for the third and fourth victim. Then she called April, the first victim, back in and asked her to focus on sounds as well. All of them had heard the buzzing noise.

Emily squeezed the young woman's hand and said, "You're very strong, April. Thank you for talking through that again. I'm going to ask you to wait in the room next door in case I have a few more questions for you, but we should be done here soon."

April nodded and thanked Emily before walking out the door.

Michelle walked into the interview room. "What do you think? Matthew Barry's cell records were clean, no activity before, during or immediately following the rapes."

"Can I see the tape of the initial interrogation with Barry?"

Michelle nodded, "Let me go get my laptop."

It was warm in the interview room and Emily removed her sweater, opting for the t-shirt underneath. She walked around the table stretching her legs; she'd been sitting for a couple of hours now. Michelle returned with her laptop and glanced at Emily, or more specifically Emily's stomach. She didn't say anything though.

What Emily had passed off as bloating the first week in March, before she knew she was pregnant, had morphed into a slightly changed shape and then, a few days ago she went from not really looking pregnant at all to having a small little bump, which Derek could not get enough of. She was slim, and in a tighter t-shirt, it was noticeable to people who'd seen her before. That little bump gave her an extreme amount of comfort and joy; the baby was growing.

Emily gave Michelle a huge smile. "Yes, I'm pregnant. Twelve weeks on Friday. We found out after what happened in Flint Mill. Actually, Derek found out first, I was unconscious for the shocking discovery." Emily laughed. It felt like forever ago already.

Michelle set down her laptop and gave Emily a hug, congratulating her.

"Serena doesn't know yet, so please don't talk about it at school. We'll tell her this weekend."

"Understood!" Michelle said with a smile.

They both sat down in front of the computer and Michelle found the file she was looking for and hit play. Emily watched the recording in silence for about ten minutes. Matthew Barry was a good looking man in his thirties, but as Emily watched him, she picked up on nuances that often get missed when police knew they had their guy based on DNA evidence.

Emily paused the recording and backed it up a minute. She turned to Michelle, "An alpha orchestrated these rapes, and Matthew Barry isn't an alpha, though he's trying to pretend he is. You see here, how he finds himself slouching and wilting and then realizes it and immediately squares his shoulders and lowers his tone. He does this several times. He's trying to establish dominance, but doesn't have a dominant personality. He's acting." Emily hit play so Michelle could see what she was talking about.

"And here," said Emily skipping the recording ahead a couple of minutes, "When the officers are asking him where he was on the nights in question, he keeps saying he was home, and every time he says 'home,' his hand shakes just slightly." Emily turned in her chair to face Michelle. "Did he live with someone?"

Michelle nodded. "His father, Alex Barry. His father's actually one of the star witnesses for the prosecution, the one who is willing to say Matthew Barry wasn't home during the rapes."

"Well, I think you might have a problem there. Matthew Barry isn't your alpha. Your alpha is someone older, someone more domineering and in control, who likely is too infirm to pull off these crimes himself, or impotent, or both. Someone for whom Matthew Barry would be willing to take all the blame. All of the women today described what I would call a disjointed rape, where Matthew Barry would randomly switch what he was doing. My guess is that Matthew Barry was taking orders from someone via text messaging, who was likely hiding in those trees and watching the whole thing. I'd look into the father first."

Michelle looked at her with wide eyes and immediately called the Alexandria detectives who had worked this case and talked to them about Emily's theory. Michelle ordered in lunch and they waited to see what the police department's technical analyst could find. About an hour later, the analyst called back. They'd pulled Alex Barry's cell phone records and didn't find anything, but when they checked under the names of various family members, they found two cell numbers under a recently deceased uncle's name, and text messages sent between those two numbers during the times of the rapes.

Michelle put her arm around Emily's shoulder and squeezed. "Damn, Emily. You are something else." she laughed.

Emily left when Michelle went off to join the police to search the Barry residence. It had been searched once before, but that was when the focus was Matthew, and at that point they already had a DNA match. Emily had learned much working cases like this, the biggest of which was that DNA hits caused investigators to not be as thorough as they should be in a lot of cases.

She was home with Serena late that afternoon when Michelle called and said they found a journal describing the rapes. While Alex Barry was insistent that it was his son's, on first glance it looked like a match to Alex Barry's handwriting. They also found the cell phones. They were together with the journal under a loose floorboard in Mr. Barry's bedroom. They got an arrest warrant and Alex Barry was currently in custody.

It was one of Emily's favorite kind of days since she'd started consulting, where her interviews lead to a major break in a case. When this happened and Derek was home, Emily would focus her happy energy on Derek, or more specifically on Derek's body. But Derek was still in flight, on his way home from a case in Montana, and Emily wasn't cleared for sex yet anyway. Instead, she went upstairs where Serena was reading and asked her if she wanted to go out for pizza.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Derek took Friday morning off work and they dropped Serena off at school together. Michelle was there and came over to them, smiling. "So I finally get to meet Derek Morgan in person."

They chatted for a bit, Michelle informing them that both father and son Barry wanted a plea bargain for testifying against the other, but Michelle was confident she didn't need their testimony. The cell phones and the journal told the whole story. They were going to get the maximum. She hugged Emily again and thanked her, saying as she walked away, "You hang onto that one, Derek."

Derek smiled and linked his hand with Emily's as they walked back to their car. "As if I'd ever let you go," he said.

Emily smiled. "Same here. Are you nervous about the appointment this morning? Because I've got butterflies jumping around in my stomach."

Derek squeezed her hand and nodded.

By the time 9:00am rolled around, after Emily had already peed in a cup, they both became jittery in the waiting room of Dr. Rodgers office. "Do you think it's going to feel like this for every appointment during the pregnancy?" asked Derek.

Emily laughed quietly. "Maybe. But I feel like this one is the big hurdle. Getting through the first trimester is huge."

A nurse called them back and she weighed Emily and took her blood pressure. They entered the exam room, where Emily was asked to undress. She was given a short smock that opened in the front and a sheet to cover her lower half. After she was laying on the table, Derek pulled a chair over to hold and kiss her hand.

Dr. Rodgers came in the room and smiled. "It's wonderful to see you, Emily." She introduced herself to Derek. She asked some questions about how Emily was feeling, if there were any lingering injuries or pain from her incident a couple of weeks prior. Emily told her that there wasn't. Aside from the very worst bruise on her lower back, that was now a faint yellow, and the very short patch of hair on her head that wasn't difficult to keep covered, she was great.

"Excellent. Let's get started," said Dr. Rodgers. She pulled the sheet down to Emily's hips and started pushing gently on her abdomen, then she felt around Emily's abdominal scar. She nodded when she was finished. "Looks good. You don't seem to have much scar tissue from your abdominal injury, so it shouldn't present a problem as you get bigger. We'll keep an eye on it, though."

She pulled out the stirrups on the bottom of the bed and asked Emily to scoot down. "I'm going to do a pelvic exam, which Dr. Robie avoided since you'd just had the IUD removed."

Emily nodded and tried to mask her nerves as Dr. Rodgers felt around inside her. "Everything feels exactly like it should, which is excellent." She removed her hand and took off her gloves. "I want to get a closer look, though, and do some more measurements. I'm going to do a transvaginal ultrasound to really take a look at your cervix."

Derek took hold of Emily's hand and squeezed it. Dr. Rodgers put a condom over the transducer and added lubricant, and then placed it inside Emily. Neither Emily or Derek gave much thought to that process, they just both eagerly looked at the screen. It was similar, but not quite the same as before. Both of them started crying as soon as they saw the baby on the screen and heard the strong heartbeat. What was different was that the baby was a little more defined, a little easier to see, a little bigger than before. They were both calmer this time, probably because the shock had worn off and also because Emily hadn't nearly died the day before.

"Look at that, Em," whispered Derek, staring at the screen in awe.

"I know," she whispered back.

Dr. Rodgers smiled at them before starting her measurements. "Twelve weeks, strong heartbeat, everything looks fantastic. I'm going to look at your cervix now," she said while slightly adjusting the wand inside Emily. She looked intently at the screen for a few moments. She smiled at both of them as she removed the wand. "Everything looks good. You can resume your regular activities within reason. Don't go running a marathon, but mild to moderate exercise is OK. Intercourse is fine, but listen to your body, Emily. If something's uncomfortable, stop. Other than that, all systems go."

Emily and Derek smiled at her and then at each other. Emily was overwhelmed by happiness about the healthy baby and pregnancy, but she was also excited. They'd been through a hell of a lot the past few weeks and to be able to physically express some of those emotions felt like it was long overdue.

Derek kissed her forehead and whispered he loved her. And then his cell phone rang. "Damn it," he hissed. He took the phone from his back pocket and stood to go answer it in the hallway.

Dr. Rodgers had Emily sit up and they talked a bit about nutrition and weight gain, which Emily had already read about online. Given her height and weight, she really should shoot for the upper end of the weight gain spectrum, around thirty-five pounds. This didn't bother her in the slightest. Emily had embraced this pregnancy fully, she was only going to do this once, and she was going to enjoy it every step of the way.

Derek came back in the room and shook his head slightly at Emily.

Emily sighed dramatically, "Say it isn't so."

He smiled at her, "New York. I'm going to drop you home first, and they're going to brief me on the plane."

Dr. Rodgers didn't say anything through this exchange. She told Emily she'd like to see her every two weeks, rather than the typical monthly appointments. She asked if they'd discussed knowing the gender.

Derek spoke up, "No, thank you. We want it to be a surprise."

Dr. Rodgers nodded and scheduled Emily's next appointment, congratulated them and left the room.

"Got time for a quickie in an exam room?" asked Emily jokingly.

"I wish," Derek laughed and reached out to cup her cheek. "I'm sorry, Em."

"You don't have to be sorry, Derek. I understand the job. Just solve the case quickly and make it back soon, OK?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Will was working on Saturday, so Emily had Henry. She called Jessica and asked if she could have Jack for the day as well, since Serena was eager to meet him. Jessica drove him over and Emily decided to take the kids to the Natural History Museum. When she looked at the three kids squished in the back of her car, Emily realized a larger car was going to be needed in the near future.

Serena ate up the information at the museum, holding Henry's hand, and sometimes Jack's, who surprisingly let her. They walked hand in hand from display to display and Emily thought she might melt from the cuteness overload. She dropped Jack back off with Jessica that evening and Will came and got Henry around 6:00, telling her he'd be happy to take Serena the next day to play at their house.

That night, Emily and Serena watched a movie, snuggling together on the couch. They ended up falling asleep there, Emily laying on her back and Serena sandwiched between Emily's side and the back of the couch, her head on Emily's shoulder. Emily awoke at the end of the movie and kissed the top of Serena's head. In that moment, though it had only been two weeks, Emily realized it felt like Serena had been with them forever.

On Sunday, Derek called to say they were on their way back from New York and he would be home by 1:30. Emily dropped a very happy and excited Serena off at Will and JJ's house around noon. Henry was waiting on the front steps and jumped up when Emily parked her car, shouting, "Serena's here! She's here, Daddy!" which made both Emily and Serena smile.

Emily returned home and took a shower. She dried and curled her hair and put on makeup. She went into the bedroom to retrieve the brown lace g-string and matching lace bra that she'd bought back on March 8th. She skipped the stockings and put on the mocha dress, which was tight enough back then and just a little bit tighter now. By the time Derek's car pulled into the driveway, she was standing at the foot of the stairs in her high heels looking very similar to how she did that night, which felt like an eternity ago.

Derek opened the door and saw her, lust immediately filling his face.

"I think it's finally time for us to cash in on what happens after this dress comes off, don't you?" she said seductively.

"Definitely." Derek dropped his bag and turned to lock the door before taking large strides to reach her. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips against hers, engaging her in an endless and passionate kiss. There hands were everywhere, hers reaching under his shirt to feel his skin, his running up and down her ribs and over the sides of her breasts, before reaching behind her to unzip the dress.

She pulled away from him then and reached for his hands, grinning at him while carefully walking backwards up the stairs, him following her.

When they reached the bedroom, Derek stepped behind her, releasing the rest of the zipper, moving her hair to the side, and pressing feather light kisses on her shoulders and the back of her neck. He pulled the dress away from her shoulders and she pulled her arms out. He slipped it down and let it it pool at her feet, moaning appreciatively at the exposed skin. He ran his hands from her upper thighs, over her backside and up to unhook her bra. He slid it off her shoulders and reached his hands around, cupping her breasts and stepping forward to kiss her neck. Emily whimpered.

She kicked her shoes off and the dress away and turned to face him. "Your turn," she said, reaching for the hem of his shirt and lifting it up and off him. She kissed his chest and moved her hands to his waistband, quickly releasing button and zipper on his jeans. She pulled both pants and boxers down and off his legs while sinking to her knees.

Emily looked at him and smirked, "A little excited there?"

He laughed. "Just a little."

Emily wrapped her hand gently around the base of his his erection and took him in her mouth. Derek moaned and wrapped his fingers loosely in her hair. She moved slowly at first and then increased her pace, encouraged by noises coming from him.

He pulled away from her. "You have to stop, Em, or this party is going to be over before it's even started."

She smiled and stood and Derek put his arms around her, trailing feather light kisses on her face and neck. He gently lowered her to the bed and reached for her underwear, slipping them down and off her legs. He leaned over and lightly trailed his fingers back up her legs, over her hips and stomach before kneeling between her legs and reaching for her breasts, teasing her nipples. He watched her breathing get faster and her eyes close.

"Em?" Emily opened her eyes to look at him. "You're beautiful."

Emily smiled and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him down for another searing kiss. She hooked her legs around the back of his thighs, trying to pull his hips down to hers.

"Impatient much?" Derek teased.

"Mmm...very."

He lowered his hips and settled between her legs, but tried to keep his weight off her stomach. "Is it weird that I'm nervous?" he whispered.

Emily placed her hand against his cheek and smiled, "No. I am a little, too. But then I remembered that two days before we found out about the pregnancy, you had me up against the bathroom wall and everything was fine."

Derek smiled, "True. Is this position OK?"

"Yes. I want to feel you around me like this. I'll let you know if it's uncomfortable."

They locked eyes when he first entered her, but as he pushed forward, Emily closed her eyes and moaned while tilting her head back. Derek moved his arms so he could support himself without crushing her, bent to kiss her neck and started slowly moving.

The languid pace went on for several minutes, with soft sighs and kisses, each of them trying to convey how much they loved each other with gentle touches, but after awhile Emily needed to pick up the pace. She hitched her legs up higher around Derek and increased the tempo of her own hip movements. He smiled at her and got the hint, but he wasn't quite ready for this to be over yet. Using his super-human control in these situations, he brought Emily to the brink of orgasm and then backed off, stopping his movement entirely and then starting back again with shallower strokes and building her up again.

The first time he did this, she moaned and smiled at him with her eyes closed. The second time she looked at him and whispered, "You are an evil man," and tried to snake her hand between their bodies. Derek grabbed her hand and gave her a devilish grin and a shake of his head. The third time, she screamed, "Fuck! Please!" and he kept moving and let her go, moaning out his own release right behind her.

Derek rolled to the side so he wouldn't collapse right on top of her and Emily rolled with him, keeping her arms around him and their bodies close. The faced each other and caught their breath. Emily's eyes were still closed and her face was flushed. Derek reached his hand out to run his finger across her forehead and down her cheek.

"I am so in love with you, Emily Prentiss."

She opened her eyes and smiled at him, "Morgan."

"What?" asked Derek confusedly. She hadn't called him Morgan in a long time.

She smiled wider at his confused face and dropped a gentle kiss on his lips before reaching her arm over and opening her nightstand drawer. She grabbed a few sheets of folded paper and brought them in front of her. "You're so in love with Emily Morgan. This baby's last name is going to be Morgan. Serena's last name will be Morgan in six months. I want to be a Morgan, too. These are copies of the notarized forms I filed at the county clerk's office on Friday afternoon. It's essentially the same paperwork I'd file when we got married anyway; I'm just getting a jump on it. In a few weeks I'll have my decree and can start officially changing my name on things."

Derek took the paperwork from her hand and looked at it and then back at her with teary eyes and a stunned expression on his face.

She lovingly touched his cheek. "You're not the only one who can surprise someone with paperwork, you know."

Derek laughed at that and placed the papers back on the nightstand. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. "I am so in love with you Emily Morgan."

"See how perfect that sounds? I am very much in love with you, too, Derek."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Derek left a little before 4:00 to go get Serena from JJ's house. Emily reached for the year-at-a-glance calendar on the top of the fridge and placed it back on the door with magnets. She took Friday's ultrasound picture and attached it near the calendar. She moved the picture of the two of them with Serena above the calendar. Finally, she X'd off all of the days up to today, March 29, except for one. She drew another heart on the calendar on March 14, the day Serena came to their house. And then she waited, a little nervous. Her and Derek had talked about how to approach this, but she really didn't know how this was going to go.

Serena opened the door about twenty minutes later, holding Derek's hand and happily announcing to Emily, "Mommy! Daddy's home!"

Emily smiled at her and said, "Isn't it great, sweet girl?"

Derek caught Emily's eye and Emily gave him a small nod. He picked up Serena and said, "Serena, we have some news to tell you. Come with us into the kitchen."

They walked together and stood in front of the fridge. Serena's eyes glanced at the display and she looked confused. Emily pointed, "See this heart here on March 14? That's the day you came to live with us and it was such an amazing and happy day. We love you very much."

Emily looked at Serena who was smiling slightly, but still confused. "And this," Emily pointed to the ultrasound picture, "is a picture of your little brother or sister that's still inside me right now. He or she is very small, about the size of a small lime if you can believe it. We have to wait all of these days for the baby to grow enough and be ready to come out." She ran her hands across the calendar at all of the blank days in each month, settling her finger on October 8 and the other heart, "But the baby should be born sometime around this date."

Serena looked at Emily with wide eyes and then looked at Derek, who was smiling at her. "I want to get down now, please," she whispered.

Derek placed Serena on the ground and she turned around and walked through the kitchen. A few seconds later they could hear her feet on the stairs. Emily and Derek looked at each other, concerned.

"Should we follow her?" asked Derek.

"I think so. Just to let her know that she can talk to us whenever she's ready, at the very least." said Emily.

They walked up the stairs and found Serena sitting on her bed with tears in her eyes, clutching the picture of her father and mother, when her mother was pregnant with her. Serena looked up at Emily and asked, "Are you going to die?"

And Emily felt like the world's most massive asshole for not considering that Serena would connect pregnancy with death. She went and sat next to Serena and Derek sat on the other side.

"No, Serena," said Emily quietly. "I'm not going to die."

"My mom died when she had me," Serena whispered.

Derek spoke up, "What happened to your mom was very sad and I can understand why you're worried. But Mommy is not going to die. Having a baby is very safe almost all of the time. Mommy just went to the doctors on Friday and the doctor said everything looked perfect."

Serena looked at Emily who smiled at her. "I'm going to be just fine, Serena. Believe that. And you are going to be the world's best big sister."

Serena smiled at that and looked at the picture of her mom and then back at Emily's stomach. "Where?"

Emily stood and lifted her shirt so Serena could see the small bump. "Right there, sweet girl. I'm going to get bigger and bigger as the baby grows."

"And you're not going to die?"

"I'm not going to die."

"OK." Serena reached her hand out and placed it gently on Emily's slight baby bump. "Hi, Baby," she said softly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


	20. Chapter 20

Serena didn't embrace Emily's pregnancy overnight. She didn't talk about it at all at first. Emily bought some books on pregnancy geared for kids her age. While Serena may have been able to read at a higher level, emotionally, on this topic, she and Derek decided that age-appropriate was certainly best. They didn't make a huge fanfare over the books; Emily just put them on her desk one day and said they were there if she was interested and her and Derek were always there to answer any questions. Serena didn't ask questions, but every once in awhile, Emily or Derek would find her in her room looking through the books.

On a positive note, she didn't seem preoccupied with the idea of Emily dying, and she didn't seem to be worried about her place in their family. She was as enamored with Emily and Derek as she was from the beginning. She blossomed at school and in social situations. Those things made Emily and Derek feel that she wasn't as concerned as she was contemplative about the whole thing. They watched her and followed her lead.

That April was magical on many levels. Rossi, inspired by who knows what, went all out at Easter. He had a caterer prepare an unbelievable brunch and set up a massive Easter egg hunt in his backyard for the kids. Watching Serena, Henry and Jack together made all of them smile. And that day was the first day Serena truly bonded with Spencer, finding a kindred spirit.

After Easter, Spencer started showing up at their house more. He would bring books he thought Serena might like. They would talk math. He brought science experiments that made Serena giggle in delight. He helped her with her chess game. One sunny Saturday, Derek and Emily left Serena with Spencer while they went for a walk and out to lunch. When they returned home, they found Spencer and Serena each with a pile of M&Ms in front of them, using them as betting units, as Spencer taught Serena the rules of poker. When Emily raised her eyebrows at him, he smiled and said, "It's a lesson in statistics, Emily."

Around that time, Serena did something else that made Emily and Derek smile when she wasn't looking; she started bickering a little with her friends and testing her limits a bit with Emily and Derek. They were relatively minor disagreements that were easily resolved. Emily had been worried that Serena's complacency was not a result of her being a perfect little girl, but a byproduct of not feeling 100% comfortable with them. Emily and Derek didn't need perfect; they were thrilled with genuine.

On April 19th, Serena turned five years old. They had a party at the house that Sunday with the team, Mike and Andrew, Judy and her family, Michelle and her family, and Lexi, the little girl Serena played with at school everyday, along with her mother Anna. Annette came and didn't stop smiling at the scene the entire day. Emily and Derek liked that the circle of good people in their lives was growing. Serena had never had a birthday party before that she could remember. She wanted to bake her own cake, which she did with Penelope's help - it was very pink when all was said and done. They gave Serena a bike for her birthday and she was adamant to learn without training wheels. It was the first thing she'd really struggled with since they'd known her, but she didn't give up. There were many scraped knees and bruises, but by the end of the week, she was riding.

By the time the end of April rolled around there was no hiding Emily's pregnancy any longer, even from perfect strangers. The weather changed and jackets and sweaters were no longer required in the mornings. Looks from the other parents at school changed from wondering to knowing. Emily signed up for a prenatal yoga class, she happily marveled at her changing shape. Derek frequently found her staring at her naked self in the mirror in the bathroom and would come up behind her and wrap his arms around her and smile. He loved her body, too. This was not something they'd ever expected; it was like a gift to see herself in the mirror every morning before getting in the shower.

Emily's name change decree came in the mail, and she spent time changing her driver's license and other pertinent things to her new name, Emily Morgan. Every time she filled out a new form or signed her name on something, she smiled and thought of Derek. They talked about getting married, but agreed that it felt strange to do so with Serena there and the baby not. They ultimately decided to wait a year. It was a ceremony of celebration, and they wanted every member of their family present, even if one of them would be an infant who wouldn't know what the hell was going on at the time.

One morning Emily found herself having to hold the button on her jeans together with an elastic hair tie and she went shopping that day for maternity clothes. She swam in many of the things she tried on at that point, but managed to find some underbelly elastic band jeans and pants that worked. She opted for the longer, stretchy maternity t-shirts, skipping the blouses for now; they were too huge and actually made her a little frightened about how big she could possibly get. In the end, she walked out with clothes similar to the ones she always wore. But she still smiled at herself in the dressing room mirror; she reminded herself of Serena that first time they took her shopping - giddy. Emily couldn't believe she was trying on maternity clothes.

May brought with it its own delights. Perhaps because Emily was now more obviously pregnant, or perhaps because she'd had enough time to consider things; whatever the reason, Serena started asking more questions about the baby. That first week in May, she asked if she could be in charge of marking off the dates on the calendar on the refrigerator. She started crawling into their bed in the mornings to say good morning to them, and then she would kiss Emily's stomach and say, "Good morning, Baby."

Derek's routine and Emily's job also changed that month. Though the travel remained the same, Derek started showing up at home a little after 6:00 on the weekday evenings he was in town. He started carpooling with JJ and dragged her out of the office early, too, convincing her that paperwork could be done at her house and they put in more than enough time at their jobs to allow themselves this. He was laden with a mountain of paperwork when he walked in the door, but he was there so they could cook and eat together as a family and spend time together. After Serena went to bed, he would sit in the living room working and Emily would sit near him. The first night she read and watched him. But then she started asking him for files when he was tasked with looking at potential cases. She started doing that work and it felt almost like being partnered together again, discussing theories and giving opinions.

Hotch called her late the following week and said, "I hear you've put in several hours lately and didn't get paid."

"Hotch, it's not a problem. I enjoy it."

"I know you do, and you did good work. It looks like they're going to give me back a position for an agent within the next few months. It means a drop in the discretionary fund a bit, but when you worked a couple of cases for us a month, those hours really added up. I have a different proposal: I know you don't want to travel anymore, and I know you prefer to work directly with the victims, but how would you feel about being contracted for a regular ten hours a week with us? You could split that over two days. Your primary job would be to analyze potential cases and make the initial contact with different law enforcement to ask questions, but you could support Garcia as well when we were on a case and you happened to be in the office."

Emily immediately accepted the offer. She kept Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays for days to work for other people and conduct her cognitive interviews, and then put in a happy five hours at the BAU on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. No one at the FBI had a problem with it. She wasn't an agent, wasn't in the field with Derek, she wasn't traveling with the team, and her reputation was solid.

She grew even closer to JJ that month. Because Emily would often pick up Henry after school so he and Serena could play, and because of the new carpool situation with Derek, JJ, Will and Henry would end up over for dinner at least once a week. When that happened on a Friday, they'd let the kids stay up late so they could all hang out longer. Emily knew that things had gotten better for JJ and Will since Emily started watching Henry, but something shifted for the better again. Emily got the sense it was because now that they had Serena, and Will would often take her to play on Sundays when he was off, and he served as Emily's backup on Mondays if she was running late at work, there was more equity - they were more able to freely enjoy the arrangement without guilt. It made Emily and Derek very happy. JJ developed a deeper bond with Serena as well. In JJ, Serena found another person to rely on, someone who was loving and kind, someone else to hold onto.

Judy and Ella became more of a fixture in their home, and Emily and Serena became a fixture in theirs. When Derek was on a case, Judy would invite her and Serena over for dinner frequently. And one night she told Emily that if she planned to continue to work after the baby was born, she would be more than willing to be their nanny. She still wanted to be able to be involved at her kids' school, but if Emily could work a four-day week, she was in. Emily looked at her incredulously and asked if she was serious, and Judy assured her she was, that she loved babies but was done having them, that extra income would help them out in the spending money department, and that she was totally in.

Only one thing got under Emily's skin that month: Construction started on their home. The architectural plans they finally agreed on made the project more obtrusive than they originally thought. Serena's room and bathroom were untouched and they could access both via a narrow, plastic-lined hallway. But by the end of May, Emily and Derek were sleeping on their mattress middle of the living room. The contractor was a friend of Derek's and he assured them that they could have it done in ten to twelve weeks. Emily tried to stay positive, but the noise and dust and not having a bedroom was a little much.

At the beginning of June, when Emily was 21 weeks pregnant, she felt the baby move. Dr. Rodgers had explained to her that she had an anterior placenta, which meant that it might take her awhile longer to feel movement. What initially felt like slight butterflies in her stomach that came and went so quickly she thought she imagined them soon became recognizable. She told Derek every time she felt that movement when he was home, but though he waited anxiously near her with his hands on her ever growing belly, he couldn't feel anything yet.

She talked to Derek a lot about how it felt to be pregnant. She loved it, she was excited and couldn't wait for the baby, and in private she adored her body, but out in the world, especially around all the younger moms of the Pre-K students and moms in her prenatal yoga class, she felt exceedingly old to be to doing this.

Derek's birthday arrived. Her and Serena made plans to celebrate as a small family that Saturday, but on the Friday before, Judy offered to take Serena for a sleepover, and Emily made plans to celebrate Derek's birthday with the team at the bar near Quantico, their old stomping grounds.

Emily put on a new pair of jeans and a black, sleeveless cowl-neck maternity top. She curled her hair the way she knew Derek liked it, using some extra gel to keep the irritating wisps from the shaved area on her scalp in place. Will picked her up so she and Derek wouldn't have both cars there. And during that drive, in his sweet Louisiana drawl, he looked at Emily and said, "Thank you for coming back, for loving Henry. I know you're not technically part of the BAU anymore, but you understand and you've become the glue that holds us all together."

Emily blinked back tears and searched for a response. She eventually patted his shoulder and said, "We hold each other together, Will. You and JJ and Henry make our lives better, too, my friend." He smiled at her and let the matter drop.

They had a fun night of drinks and appetizers and laughter at the edge of the quieter area of the bar. Derek was enjoying himself, and Emily was enjoying everyone despite the fact that her drink was sparkling water; it had been a very long time since they'd been out all together like this. It got late and the bar started filling up with a younger crowd that was there for the dancing. Hotch, Reid and Rossi left around that time. Derek had gone to the bathroom, and Will stood and made a comment about getting home to relieve the babysitter.

JJ nodded, but looked across the bar and pointed, "What's he up to?"

Emily looked to where she was pointing and saw Derek talking to the DJ. She smirked but shook her head at the same time. "I think I know exactly what he's doing, but he's clearly hammered if he thinks he's going to get his way."

JJ and Garcia looked at her and Garcia leaned forward and said, "You should go for it. He told us during a case last fall that you dance better than he does."

Emily rolled her eyes at them.

Derek approached the table and winked at Emily, "Wanna dance?"

Emily was aware of JJ grabbing Will's shirt and pulling him back down to his bar stool, muttering, "This just got interesting."

Emily knew at that point that JJ and Garcia were both recalling last summer and that first picture, when the normally reserved Emily was captured out on the dance floor with Derek at this very bar back in 2007. That day was the first time she'd danced like that in public since college, and also the last time she'd danced like that in public. Dancing like this in front of people was right up there with weddings; it made her feel nervous and embarrassed.

"I'm quite sure the water I'm drinking doesn't have enough alcohol content for that, Derek," said Emily.

"Come on," he said, "We dance all the time at home."

"Not for awhile now, and we're not at home."

"But it's my birthday."

"But I'm very sober and very obviously pregnant,"

"But you look gorgeous and I guarantee you love the songs coming up, and we can still show all those kids out there how it's done."

She raised her eyebrows at him.

"But it's my birthday?" he repeated hopefully.

Emily laughed and relented. "OK, birthday boy." She stood and looked at JJ and Garcia who were both smiling in anticipation, like Emily dancing at a bar was some sort of miracle they never thought they'd witness, which it pretty much was. Emily pointed at them, "Don't you two be obnoxious about this later or I will end you." She followed Derek out on the dance floor.

She looked at how happy Derek was and realized she didn't need alcohol to give her the courage to do this. He was always so understanding of her feelings, always. He took care of her and loved her unconditionally. And dancing was such a simple request; she could do this. She shook off the fact that she had an audience she knew and that it felt especially weird to be doing this while pregnant, and started to dance.

Derek grinned and followed suit. When he put his hand on her waist and pulled her closer, she laughed when her stomach prevented him from getting as close as he wanted. But then she put an arm around his neck, moved her hips as best she could against him, just felt the music and forgot about her bulging belly for a moment.

She heard Derek huff out a laugh and followed his eyes towards their table, where JJ and Garcia were watching with their mouths slightly open.

Emily laughed, too, and put her other hand on Derek's cheek to draw his eyes back to her.

"Still feeling exceedingly old, Em?" he asked, loud enough to be heard.

She shook her head and smiled, shouted over the music, "Thank you. For loving me, and knowing me well enough to know when I need a nudge."

"Always," he said with a smile.

She turned in his arms and pressed her body against his, flinging one arm back around his neck. He put one hand on her hip and the other on the side of her stomach and she smiled, remembering her birthday so many years before, the night of their first time.

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "Em, this is how we started."

She placed her hand over his where it was resting on her stomach and wove her fingers between his. And a few moments later, she felt it. She felt it not from inside her, but against her hand, which meant Derek felt it, too. The baby kicking.

Emily turned again to face him and his eyes were shining, a shocked look on his face.

"Apparently the baby wants to dance, too!" she shouted.

He smiled, still in awe. "Holy shit, Em."

"I love you, Derek Morgan."

He smiled at her, love in his eyes. He kept one hand on her stomach, and they danced.


	21. Chapter 21

It was the week after Derek's birthday. He was putting Serena to bed and Emily was sprawled out on the couch reading. Derek came downstairs and sat on the ottoman in front of her. He reached over and lifted her shirt and bent to kiss her stomach.

"Hey, my baby," he said to her belly. "Did you have a good day in there? You enjoying that steak your Mommy pounded at dinner?"

Emily laughed and put her book to the side. Derek sat up straight and looked at her.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

Emily pushed herself to a sitting position and put her feet on the ground, facing him. "You look very serious. What's up?"

He let out loud breath. "There are some openings at Quantico where I could transfer. All of them involve some travel, though a lot less than I do now. But there's an opening in the DC field office. It would mean no traveling. What do you think?"

She stared at him for a few seconds and took his hands in hers. "Honey, no. Unless _you_ really want to, but I don't think you do. I think you'd be doing it because you think I'd be happier."

"Would you be happier?"

She smiled at him. "Do I look unhappy now? I don't think you could find a happier person than me, Derek. I know you miss us when you're gone, and I know that feeling will increase after the baby is born, but you also love your job. There's a part of me that wants to tell you to take the DC job, stay local. But I know you'd be miserable. I'd rather have a happy, whole you three or four days a week than more time with a dissatisfied you. Besides, that field office job is no less dangerous than what you do now, and I currently have five people I know and trust with our lives watching your back."

He shook his head slowly. "But what if it's all more than you can handle after the baby comes?"

Emily cupped his cheeks with her hands, "Since we've had Serena, when you're home, you walk on clouds. Every part of you is satisfied and happy. That's the Derek Morgan I want. And if it feels like too much for me to handle after the baby comes, we'll talk and figure something out. There are always options. If you ever want a career change for _you_, I'm behind you all the way. But don't take a preemptive strike that will make you unhappy just because you're worried about something that may or may not happen in the future."

"You're sure?"

"Positive." Emily stood up and pulled on his hands, coaxing him into a standing position. She wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear, "You are the sweetest, most wonderful man on the planet. I want you to know that I think our future is going to be even more amazing than our present. I have faith in that."

She felt him smile against her neck before he kissed a path up to her lips.

"Do you think Serena's asleep?" she asked.

"She was out before I left the room."

Emily took his hand and led him to the den, the only real room they had at the moment with a door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That summer, Serena alternated weeks between the summer camp at her school and time with Judy and her kids. Judy offered, and Emily and Derek wanted to test the waters on how it felt to pay a friend and neighbor for childcare before the baby arrived.

Back in April, during Serena's birthday party, Judy had talked about the summer swim club they joined every year. Emily and Derek signed up right away. Michelle Stone and her family, and JJ and Will also joined. Thus began the quest for a maternity swim suit for Emily. The problem was not her belly; her boobs decided they wanted to get in on the action, too, much to Derek's delight. By the time the end of June arrived, she was up one cup size. Finding a swim suit with appropriate support was difficult, but she finally located one that worked, and they started hitting the pool whenever they could.

On July 4th, the pool held an all-day festival that concluded with a small firework display. They were a happy bunch at the pool that day - JJ, Will and Henry, Judy and her family. Michelle's husband was on a business trip, but she came with her kids.

Serena loved splashing around in the shallow end with her friends. Emily had started her in lessons at the pool two weeks before and she was getting to be a bit more of a confident swimmer.

All of the adults were sitting in lounge chairs watching the kids playing in the pool when Serena shouted, "Daddy, come swim with me!"

Derek smiled and stood up, removed his t-shirt and walked to the pool steps.

Michelle, who was a lounge chair over from Emily, lowered her sunglasses, looked at a shirtless Derek and said, "Damn, Emily."

Both Emily and JJ laughed.

Judy piped up, "I give Bethany Young thirty seconds before she attacks."

The other women looked over at her and Judy explained, "She's always at the pool and on the prowl, trying to find any man who will take her bait. That's her over there in the hot pink bikini."

They looked at a woman in her thirties in the shallow end with bleached hair and a clearly fake tan. Sure enough, as soon as Derek entered the water, she was right next to him. Derek did a good job of trying to ignore her while he played with Serena, but she was relentless.

After a several minutes of being pestered, Derek made his way over to the side of the pool nearest Emily and mouthed the words, "Help me."

Emily laughed and took off her swim coverup, joining him in the water.

Later that afternoon, the kids were sitting on their towels on the pool deck enjoying ice cream cones while the adults sat around a table, playing a friendly game of Texas hold 'em, betting with pretzels. Serena came over and crawled onto Derek's lap. Emily smiled at her, curious about what she might say or do now that she understood this game. She didn't do anything at first except observe, watching people bet and seeing people go out.

Emily and Will went out when Judy's husband, Alan, got an incredibly lucky river card and drew a straight. Only Alan and Derek remained in the game. They played a couple of rounds, each taking turns folding their bad hands. Then a round came where they both were betting. Serena's face was unreadable as she looked at Derek's pocket cards. Both he and Alan continued to bet as the flop and turn came out. When the river card was played, Derek reached for his pile of pretzels, ready to go all in. Serena put her hand on his before he could do that.

"Don't, Daddy. Alan keeps tapping his finger on the table. He does that when he has a really good hand, better than what you have."

_Statistics lesson my ass, Spencer Reid,_ thought Emily.

JJ laughed, "Spencer's teaching her to look for tells?"

Derek chuckled and checked. Alan looked at him and Serena, knowing Derek would probably fold if he bet. He checked, too, and shook his head. Derek turned his cards over, showing his pocket pair of nines, giving him three nines since one was in the flop. Alan turned his cards over; it was a straight.

Serena turned her head and smiled at Derek, "I told you, Daddy!" Everyone at the table laughed.

Henry came up then and said, "Serena, let's swim!" Will stood and said he'd go with them.

The conversation at the table centered around poker and Serena for a bit. A few minutes later, Bethany showed up and took Will's vacated chair. She introduced herself and tried to participate in the conversation, laughing a little too much whenever Derek said something, blinking at him slowly, hanging on his every word. Emily actually wanted to laugh at loud at her obvious desperation. Derek reached over and took Emily's hand and Bethany gave her a brief harsh look.

Emily looked at JJ, giving a slight roll of her eyes. JJ winked at her.

"So, Emily, what exactly do you do for work?" JJ asked a little bit louder than necessary.

The group quieted and Emily smirked at JJ. "Well, right now I'm a consultant for local law enforcement and the FBI. I used to be the head of the Interpol in London. And before that, I was an FBI agent. Prior to that..." Emily scrunched up her face for a second, seeming to consider the group, "Well, it's one of those situations where I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

JJ looked at her in mock shock. "You mean you carried a gun? Did you ever shoot anyone?"

"Yes and yes."

"Wow," said JJ, shaking her head.

Emily shrugged and put her elbow on the table. She rested her chin in her hand and sighed, looking around the group and settling her eyes on Bethany. "Sometimes I really miss that gun."

Bethany stood and excused herself, saying there was something she needed to do. The group let her get a bit away before they couldn't contain themselves any longer and started laughing.

JJ tipped her beer towards Emily. "Well played, Em."

Emily grinned and tipped her water bottle back at JJ, "Nicely orchestrated, my friend."

They enjoyed the rest of their afternoon and the barbeque dinner at the pool. As it grew dark, a very tired but very excited Serena laid with them on a lounge chair, waiting for the fireworks to start. Emily was sitting between Derek's legs, leaning back against him and Serena was snuggled with her head on Emily's shoulder, her body pressed against Emily's side.

Emily felt the baby kicking hard and Serena popped her head up and smiled, having felt the kicks against her thighs where they rested on Emily's middle. She scooted her body down, placed her hands on Emily's stomach and exclaimed, "You're excited about the fireworks. too, aren't you?" Emily felt a few more kicks and Serena grinned at her and Derek before sliding back up and resting her head on Emily's shoulder again. "I think the baby likes my voice."

Emily squeezed Serena with her arm and Derek brought his hand up and placed it on Serena's head, "Of course the baby does, Serena," he said.

The first firework burst in the sky and Serena sat up in awe, scooting to the edge of the lounge chair and looking up.

"Is it weird that I'm on the verge of crying, Em?" asked Derek.

"I'm right there with you. It's a holiday and we're a family and it's wonderful."

Derek laughed. "We better invest in Kleenex and life jackets before Christmas. We'll have two kids then and the tears will be a flood."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They ordered baby furniture online and it was delivered and stored in their garage, which was very full at the moment. They made quick final decisions for the finishing touches on their home addition. The only thing they pondered over was the color of the baby's room, finally settling on a nice sage green that would go well with the one thing Emily and Derek had ordered that they wanted to incorporate in that room.

On July 24th, about twelve weeks after the construction began, it ended. The team came back that weekend and helped them move their bedroom furniture, the old spare bedroom furniture and the baby furniture back into the house.

After they'd all eaten dinner together, after the team left, after Serena was in bed, Emily and Derek entered the baby's room holding the package that had come in the mail a couple of weeks before. They worked together to put the large tree wall decal up. Then they added four mockingbird wall decals to the branch that stretched over the baby's crib. The Morgans were all singing pretty music for the world to hear.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily declined a traditional baby shower, despite much eye rolling on the part of Penelope and JJ. But on the last Wednesday in August, when Emily was about 34 weeks pregnant, she walked into the briefing room at the BAU and was greeted with a shockingly huge pile of gifts and six happy people who didn't really care if Emily liked being the center of attention or not. She was getting a baby shower.

Annette called that evening with a court date for Serena's final adoption hearing, the next Friday, September 4. Emily had talked with Serena when she changed her name, and she and Derek had had conversations with her about her own last name. Serena had no reservations in this area - she wanted to be a Morgan, too. Fran flew in for the adoption hearing and she and Serena had a happy reunion. The pictures from the courtroom that day say it all. Radiant, that's how Emily would describe the looks on their faces. In Emily's favorite picture, snapped just after they'd signed the final paper, Derek was holding Serena in his arms, a smile on his face, looking at Emily who was turned towards his body. Serena had one arm around his neck but was leaning towards Emily, with her little hand on Emily's cheek. They were smiling at each other. Emily will never forget that moment, not just because of the picture, but because of what Serena had said just a second before it was snapped: "Forever, Mommy."

The following Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, she returned to school as Serena Morgan, a very excited and happy Kindergartner.

Emily had gradually been cutting back on taking on any new job assignments as her due date approached. She intended to put in her ten hours a week at the BAU until she felt like she couldn't anymore, or until she went into labor - whichever came first. But she only had a full day to put that Thursday with Linda Horton in Fairfax, and then she was done consulting. She had Garcia pull her website for the time being and told her regular clients that she'd be in touch after the first of the year.

Derek was going off travel duty once Emily reached 38 weeks. He'd still be working cases, but doing so from the BAU. He was not going to risk missing the birth. The new agent, Byron Goldstone, who they'd brought in from a different unit was gradually acclimating to the BAU. He was still finishing up some cases from his old unit so wasn't with the BAU everyday yet, but he had traveled on a case with them the week before and all reports so far were that he was going to fit in just fine. Emily liked him. She could see herself learning to trust him to watch Derek's back as well.

That Friday, when she was 36 weeks pregnant, she had an appointment with Dr. Rodgers. Everything still looked perfect. Dr. Rodgers advised her to rest, listen to her body and get ready. It wouldn't be long now. Emily's heart fluttered in excitement. It really wouldn't be long now.

Dr. Rodgers scheduled her to return at the same time the following Friday, but Emily never made it to that appointment.


	22. Chapter 22

The weekend after Labor Day, Emily went into nesting mode, washing all the adorable little blankets and outfits she'd received as gifts or purchased on her own. Serena enjoyed helping her fold the items and put them away; she was getting more excited about the baby, too.

Many months ago, she and Derek had started a name list with the rules that each could write whatever they wanted and the other person had veto power with no questions asked. There were only two names left on that list now, one for a boy and one for a girl. Both names had the same meaning and neither Emily or Derek had wavered or written anything since.

By that Sunday, Emily felt reasonably ready to go. They had the room, they had the clothes, she had her boobs, they had JJ's old bassinet to use in their room at the beginning. They needed to attend their last childbirth class, which they'd had to postpone due to a case the week before. They'd do that on Tuesday evening. She was waiting on some nursing bras to be delivered in the mail. They needed to buy some diapers and burp clothes, but other than that, it just became a waiting game.

Emily tried to enjoy the time to relax, but frequently found her mind wandering in nervous anticipation. She actually wished she still was working more because the waiting seemed endless. That was the reason that on Thursday, September 17, Emily found herself in a stuffy interview room in Mt. Storm, West Virginia. Hotch had asked her if she was up for a road trip, and though she'd initially laughed out loud, she realized a day being completely busy sounded pretty great.

The Grant County Sheriff's Office wanted help talking to eleven rape victims whose rapist was in prison but had been granted a retrial based on some botched DNA evidence. Lester McNeal had been convicted on that evidence, but now with that out the window, they were worried that McNeal was going to walk. The BAU didn't have another case at the time, so on Wednesday afternoon Hotch asked Emily if she wanted to put in an additional ten or so hours that week and make the trek out there the next day. She arranged for Judy to grab Serena from after school care if she were running late and told Hotch she'd do it.

She, JJ and Derek had made the nearly three hour drive that morning, JJ because Hotch wanted both of them there, Derek because he gave Hotch a death stare when Emily agreed to do the interviews, so Hotch told him to tag along.

They'd selected Mt. Storm because it was centrally located to where the women lived. The Grant County sheriff's office had done their best to find a comfortable place for the women to come in and talk, but it was a small town with few options. It was a warm day, the air conditioner didn't work very well and by noon, Emily was really regretting the decision to drive out there and do this, and she was especially regretting the greasy breakfast sandwich she'd had that morning. That sandwich sounded like a good idea at the time, but she was plagued by indigestion and she actually felt a little nauseous. She also underestimated what a three hour drive would do to her back. It started aching about an hour into the drive and it hadn't let up since.

At one point between interviews Derek asked her if she was OK, and she said, "Fine. Just remind me not to eat anymore greasy food between now and when this baby is born." She remained stoic on the outside, drank water, popped tums between each interview, and plugged along.

They finished the last interview at about 3:00, her and JJ taking turns with each woman, and Emily felt hopeful that at least the victims were feeling strong about testifying, but it wasn't a terribly satisfying cognitive interview experience. There was no smoking gun that would ensure Lester McNeal would stay in prison, unfortunately. It made Emily regret the decision to drive out there even more, and the thought of getting back in the car almost made her want to cry. The back pain had not let up even though she'd caved and took Tylenol a couple of hours before.

They walked to the parking lot. JJ got in the driver's seat and Derek opened the passenger door for Emily, but she shook her head. "I'm laying in the back seat. That sandwich this morning did a number on my stomach and my back is sore from sitting." She saw the concerned look on his face and placed her hand on his shoulder, "I'm fine. In hindsight this trip probably wasn't the best choice, but I'm ok."

JJ got them on the road and Emily closed her eyes in the backseat, searching for an unconsciousness that would take away the back pain. But about twenty minutes later, a searing pain started in her back and wrapped around her front. She cried out, "Fuck!" as she absorbed the pain and felt a gush of wetness between her legs.

Derek whipped his head towards her and immediately panicked, taking in her wet pants and the look on her face. "Her water just broke!" he shouted.

JJ hit the lights and sirens and called Garcia.

"You're on speaker in the briefing room where we're looking at cases. How did the interviews go?" Garcia perkily rushed out.

"Emily's water just broke. I'm driving with lights. She has hours, I'm sure. We're headed towards Alexandria. I can have her there in two hours if I push it. Call Judy to make sure she gets Serena. And call Emily's doctor."

"Oh my God, Jayje! I'm so excited. I'm on it!"

Derek took off his seat belt and carefully crawled between the two front seats to the back. He crouched by Emily's head and lifted her torso to slide behind her, his back against the car door, and Emily wrapped in a semi-seated position in his arms.

"I can't believe this is happening, Derek," she said.

"You and me both." he nervously laughed out.

"You have hours, Em," said JJ from the front seat, "I'll get you there."

JJ burned up miles on the small highway, but about eight minutes later, Emily cried out in pain again, breathing heavy, clenching her fingers around Derek's, trying to remember what she'd learned in that childbirth class.

In the front seat, JJ looked at the clock. "Have you been having contractions all day?" she demanded.

"No," huffed out Emily. "My back hurt. I just didn't feel well."

JJ called Garcia again and started speaking quickly as soon as Garcia answered, "Alexandria may not be an option. I'm not sure. What's the closest major hospital en route to Alexandria."

A few seconds of silence and the muffled sounds of typing followed. "Warrenton," said Garcia urgently. "If you want to head towards Alexandria and hope you make it with a back up, Farquier County Hospital is the direction to head first."

"I'm keeping you on speaker. We may need you." JJ chuckled and looked in the rear view mirror, "Sweet irony. If you two ever wanted to trademark the phrase 'coming full circle,' I think you'd have a strong case. We're headed back to where this started."

Derek smiled and kissed Emily's head, but she was having none of the humor at this moment. Her body was doing things she didn't understand. She hurt. This wasn't like the birthing class described. She wasn't at home getting through the long first stages of labor with Derek. She wasn't in a hospital with Dr. Rodgers. She was in a car, essentially in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere. And this was happening too fast. It shouldn't be happening like this.

JJ drove quickly and listened to Emily cry out again, a mere five minutes later.

"Sixty miles, Jayje. We're tracking you on GPS. Do you want me to call an ambulance?" asked Garcia over the speaker.

"I can get there faster than an ambulance can get to us and back, Pen. Just make sure they know we're coming." JJ took what she knew of childbirth and what should be happening right now and played the odds. She pressed down on the accelerator a bit more.

They drove and Emily's next three contractions kept coming like clockwork every five minutes, giving JJ a sense of calm, like they would make it. And then the contraction that followed those came just two minutes later and Emily screamed and cried out, "I need to push!"

JJ yelled, "Ambulance, Garcia! And get me her doctor on the phone. I don't want a 911 operator!" as she pulled the car into a turnout on the side of the road.

Derek was in a shocked panic, JJ could see that on a quick glance; he couldn't do this. She got out of the car and ran to the hatch, grabbing an emergency blanket and the first aid kit. She opened the passenger side door where Emily's legs were and channeled her panic into humor as she grabbed for the waistband of Emily's pants and underwear and pulled them off. "No real morning sickness, didn't even know you were pregnant for almost ten weeks. Perfect baby bump the whole time. No stretch marks. And passed off the first stages of labor with indigestion and a back ache. Emily Morgan, you're something else."

JJ eyed them as Emily's pants came off and she shoved the emergency blanket under Emily as best she could, "You two certainly know how to get shit done in the back of a bureau vehicle."

"The ambulance is fifteen minutes out. I've got Dr. Rodgers on the line and I've briefed her," gasped Penelope.

"Tell her not to push yet," came a voice, "You need to verify which direction the baby is in so I can help you best, JJ."

JJ shouted, "Don't push, Em!"

"JJ," came Dr. Rodgers voice. "I need you to feel. Gently! If Emily feels like she needs to push, you'll be able to know right away."

Emily huffed out a, "I can't believe this is going down like this" as JJ's fingers pushed inside her.

"Preaching to the choir, Em," said JJ. Then, "I feel hair!'

Derek finally woke himself up out of his shocked stupor, "You do?"

"Nice that you could join us, Derek," said JJ both sarcastically and lovingly.

"OK," said Dr. Rodgers. "Emily, you can push if you need to. JJ, when you see the head, make sure to hold it gently. Let the baby come naturally. When the head is out, check for the cord. If it's around the neck, tell Emily to stop pushing; you need to loosen the cord first. When the baby's out, push down gently on the nose from top to bottom to get rid of any fluid. Do not cut the umbilical cord - let the emergency response deal with that, even if the placenta comes out. Just put the baby on Emily with the head tipped a bit at a downward angle and wait. OK?"

"Got it," said JJ.

JJ saw Derek link his fingers with Emily's as the next contraction crashed through her and she screamed, pushing the whole time.

"You've got this, Em," he murmured as another contraction rocked her body and she screamed again.

"I see the head!" said JJ loudly, through tears.

Emily pushed again as the next contraction ripped through her, screaming out in pain.

JJ saw the dark curly hair move past Emily and a brief glimpse of forehead. The next contraction brought another push, and JJ could see the face of Emily and Derek's beautiful baby. It took everything inside JJ to not collapse in awe.

"Hang on, Em," JJ said firmly. She unwound the cord from the baby's neck and told her friend, her sister, "You're almost there. Push."

The next contraction ripped through Emily's body and she pushed. Emily could feel the baby slipping out of her body, could feel the relief, could hear the silence.

And then...

A cry and something solidly placed on Emily's chest. Emily instinctively brought her hands up towards the weight on her chest and started bawling. Their baby was crying. Derek bent his head so his forehead touch Emily's, his hand gently on top of hers, on top of the baby.

"It's a boy," laughed JJ through her tears.

Emily was aware of sirens approaching, was aware of the relieved laughter of her friends and Dr. Rodgers from beyond the phone speaker, was aware of JJ laughing and crying where she knelt between Emily's legs, and was aware of Derek, his arms around her whispering, "He's here. You did it. I love you so much."

But mostly, she was aware of the baby crying. She'd brought a baby into this world and she couldn't find a scope or space for her emotions.


	23. Chapter 23

The EMT clamped and cut the umbilical cord and handed the baby off to his partner who quickly wrapped the baby in a blanket from the ambulance. Derek helped roll Emily onto a backboard so she could be lifted out of the car and onto a gurney without having to stand. As she was wheeled around to the ambulance, Emily caught a glimpse of JJ, squatting and leaning back against the car.

"JJ?" asked Derek in a concerned voice.

"I'm good. Go. I'm just going to catch my breath for a minute. I'll be right behind you. Go."

Derek rode with Emily in the ambulance, holding their baby, full of emotion, alternating between looking at her and looking at the bundle in his arms. Emily delivered the placenta on that drive and she became more and more aware of the throbbing and stinging pain between her legs. She was aware of the EMT's talking in the radio about her, about the baby, when the EMT driving said, "Five minute APGAR is a 6." She knew that wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. She kept trying to look at Derek around the EMT. "Is he OK?" she asked over and over on the drive to the hospital, and Derek kept telling her, "Yes. He's perfect, Em."

Dr. Robie was there in the emergency entrance when Emily arrived at the hospital, along with another doctor standing next to an incubator. She felt some relief seeing Dr. Robie. The other doctor took the baby from Derek and put him in the incubator, and Emily told him to stay with the baby.

Dr. Robie took Emily's hand and smiled as they wheeled her to a bank of elevators. "We're taking you up to maternity. Dr. Williams took the baby to the NICU just because they want to do a thorough exam due to the APGAR score and they have all of the equipment in there they might need. Don't worry, though. Let Dr. Williams do her own assessment; she's the best. He looked good to me at first glance."

She examined Emily and cleaned and numbed the area before stitching her up, saying she had a second degree laceration. Emily learned the term "precipitous labor," or a labor which happens very quickly. While there were a host of complications that could arise from something like this, both for baby and mom, Emily's only issue was the tearing that went down to the muscles in her perineum. It would take a few weeks to heal, but she'd be OK. It could have been a lot worse, probably would have been if this had happened at forty weeks rather than thirty-seven.

Emily heard everything Dr. Robie said, but it sounded like the doctor's voice was far away. She was worried about her son, she wanted them all together.

Dr. Robie massaged her uterus which was beyond unpleasant. When she was finished, she helped Emily slip on mesh underwear with a pad and an ice pack. She raised the head of the bed and helped get Emily out of her shirt and bra and into a maternity hospital gown, one that allowed her to easily nurse the baby, which was all Emily wanted to do. She cried. This wasn't how this was supposed to happen.

"Emily, I want to give you some Percocet. It's safe for the baby. You don't need to be in pain."

Emily nodded, tears dripping down her face, and took the pills when the nurse brought them. She was actually in a lot of pain.

Dr. Robie patted her hand gently. "The baby is right down the hall getting checked out. You'll be together soon. You did an amazing job, Emily." She pulled her stool over to the side of the bed and sat and held Emily's hand. "I'll stay with you until the baby comes back. I'm not technically working today so I have time. A woman named Penelope from the FBI called me on my unlisted home number and told me you were on your way in and that I'd better get here. I'm glad I live close by," she said with a smile.

Emily managed a small laugh at that.

A few seconds later a hospital bassinet was wheeled into the room by Dr. Williams. Derek was right behind her, smiling. Emily only had eyes for that small bundle now cleaned up and swaddled in a blanket with a blue cap on his head.

"Six pounds, two ounces. Nineteen inches long. Perfectly healthy," Dr. Williams said to Emily with a smile. She lifted the baby and placed him in Emily's arms, and Emily immediately forgot about her pain. She smiled brightly through her tears and drank him in with her eyes. He was looking right at her. He was the most beautiful baby she'd ever seen. His skin tone was currently pretty light, just a bit darker than her own. They knew that might change over time, or maybe not. It didn't matter to either of them at all. Most of his facial features resembled Derek, but his eyes were all Emily.

"Hi, Caleb," Emily whispered. And she smiled and laughed, not quite able to believe this.

Derek bent over and placed gentle kiss on Emily's cheek before tipping his forehead so it rested against hers, "He's beautiful, Em, like his mommy. I sent a quick text to Judy so she could let Serena know you both were OK."

"Good. We should call her."

"You should get the baby against your skin and nurse him first. It's not too late for that first bonding moment." said Dr. Robie.

Emily nodded and reached to unsnap the gown. Dr. Robie took the baby from her and placed him back in the bassinet. "Hey there, little guy. You certainly know how to make an entrance," she cooed as she unwrapped the blanket around him and unsnapped the onsie, lifting it gently off his arms and over his head. She lifted him again, clad in his hat and diaper, and placed him back in Emily's arms.

Emily was overwhelmed by the feel of him against her skin.

"You want to lift your breast to his mouth, and you want him to latch on with as much of the aureola in his mouth as possible. You can push down on his chin to open his mouth wider if you need to."

Emily followed her instructions and Caleb latched on like a pro. Dr. Robie looked at the connection and nodded. "Piece of cake," she said with a smile, and pulled the hospital blanket up to cover Caleb's body. "I'm going to give you three a little time. I'll check on you in a bit."

Derek sat on the edge of the bed near Emily's waist, staring at both of them in wonder. He reached out his hand and pulled back the blanket a bit. He ran his fingers over Caleb's shoulder, arm and tiny hand, down his leg to his feet before covering him again. Then he reached forward and placed his hand on Emily's cheek. "I love you, Emily."

She looked up and smiled at him, tears shining in her eyes, "I love you, too. I can't believe we made him, Derek."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They put in a Face Time call to Judy's cell phone and Judy answered, congratulating them with a huge smile on her face before passing the phone to Serena.

"Mommy!" Serena cried happily.

"Hi my sweet girl. Your little brother's here. You ready to see him?"

"Yes!"

Derek lifted Caleb up so Serena could see him on the screen. Her eyes got wide and she smiled. "He's really here," she whispered. "He's so cute. Hi, baby!"

"Caleb," said Derek.

"Hi, Caleb," Serena said with her trademark giggle. "I like his name. Spencer called and said he'd bring me to see you tomorrow morning."

"We can't wait, Serena," said Emily with a smile. "We love you."

"I love you, too. Bye, Caleb. I'll see you tomorrow!"

Next they called Fran and showed her the baby, and Fran cried and laughed in joy. "I want to teleport myself there. I want to get on a plane!"

Emily laughed at her excitement, "I should get out of here on Sunday. How about you look for a flight for Sunday or Monday?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The baby was sleeping on Emily's chest when JJ showed up in the doorway wearing a t-shirt that read, "Warrenton Is Where It's At!" Her pants were a bit of a mess, but not too bad.

Emily's eyes swam with tears as soon as she saw JJ's face, but laughter was just under that. It was JJ's sarcasm and joking that kept Emily from spiraling into a complete panic in that car, and Emily was eternally grateful. "We definitely know how to get shit done in the back of a bureau vehicle," she said as she sniffled and let her laughter bubble to the surface.

Derek and JJ laughed as well. She walked into the room and dropped a kiss on Emily's head and placed a gentle hand on Calebs back. Derek reached over and wrapped her in a hug. "Thank you, JJ."

When JJ pulled away from him, she had tears in her eyes. "I should have called the ambulance right away," she said quietly.

Emily shook her head, "JJ this baby was coming no matter what. I'd rather it have been you there in the back of that car than an EMT in the back of an ambulance. We're both fine. You were amazing and I love you."

"I love you, too Em." JJ wiped away the tears on her cheeks. "How are you feeling?"

"Fantastic. In awe. In love. Look at him, Jayje. I can't believe it."

JJ smiled at Caleb and her eyes welled up again. Emily reached out and squeezed her hand, "They sell that shirt in the gift shop here?"

JJ laughed and shook her head, "No. At the gas station on the way here. I needed a new shirt and I thought it was appropriate; this is definitely where it's at. I freaked out the person at the register. A white blouse and delivering a baby is not a great combo."

She reported that the team would come tomorrow morning, with Serena. One of them would drive one of their cars so they could get home when Emily was released. Then she snapped a picture of Derek and Emily holding Caleb and attached it to a text message she sent to the whole team.

"Caleb Matthew Morgan. 6 lbs, 2 oz. 19 inches. Kicking ass and taking names, and melting hearts as of 4:02pm."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

JJ ended up getting a room at a hotel that night. She said she wanted to give them time together, but didn't want to be too far away in case they needed anything. She said she'd be back in the morning with something better than the hospital breakfast.

Emily took another dose of percocet. Every time a nurse came in to massage her uterus, every time she had to pee, all she could think was, _What fresh hell is this?_ For a woman who had a high pain threshold, that whole part of having a baby came as quite a shock to her. It was a strange kind of pain, though. Caleb reminded her of Derek that night in this hospital back in March. When she had Caleb in her arms, he was the best pain medicine there was.

She wasn't sure if Derek slept that first night at all. He dragged the couch next to the bed, he put the bassinet on the other side of the couch, Emily laid on her side to face him. They held hands. And every time Caleb cried, Derek was up, bringing him to her, helping him latch on, touching them both gently. He changed every diaper. He rocked Caleb in the rocking chair. Emily was exhausted and managed to sleep between these times, but it was hard to do so. She could watch Derek with Caleb in his arms all day and never get tired it.

The next morning JJ arrived with the promised breakfast and wearing new clothes. "Walmart late last night," she said. "It was riveting."

They ate and JJ held Caleb, showering him in kisses and talking to him in her sweet voice about how beautiful he was. At 10:00am she got a text. "They're here. What do you guys want in terms of visitors?"

"Can you go get Serena and bring her back here first? After that, we're good with whatever. We want to see everyone." said Derek.

JJ left the room and returned a couple of minutes later with Serena. She had her big eyes and smile when she came in the door. She was wearing black converse high tops, pink and white polka dot leggings, a pink tutu-like skirt, and a white t-shirt with pink glitter writing on it: I'm The Big Sister. Emily laughed quietly. That outfit had Penelope written all over it.

Serena surveyed the room and walked quickly to Derek, the only one standing, who picked her up and kissed her cheek. "That is a fabulous outfit, my girl." he said.

"Penelope bought it for me. I like it!"

Serena turned her head to look at Emily and the baby sleeping on her chest. "Hi, Mommy. Hi, Caleb!"

Derek brought her over to the hospital bed and set her down gently. Serena's first focus was Emily. She kissed Emily's cheek and Emily reached with her free hand to hug her.

"Hi, my sweet girl. I'm so glad you're here. I missed you. Caleb, I know, couldn't wait to meet you."

Serena scooted down on the bed a bit so she could lay with her head on Emily's shoulder, facing Caleb. She reached her hand out and touched his hand gently. "I'm your big sister, Caleb," she whispered.

Serena gasped when Caleb opened his eyes. "He's looking at me, Mommy!" she quietly exclaimed. "I think he knows me!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was October 8th, Caleb's original due date, and Emily sat in her favorite chair in the den at dawn, her legs on the ottoman, Caleb comfortably sleeping on her thighs. Derek and Serena were still asleep upstairs. Emily had brought the baby downstairs a bit ago when he woke up to eat, so Derek could sleep a little more. She smiled lovingly at Caleb's sleeping, sweet, milk-drunk face and reached for her journal on the table next to her. She flipped to a fresh page.

_Dear Caleb,_

_When you're older and you ask about how you were born, I will tell you that you began over eight years before you were conceived, with six amazing people who grounded me in the importance of human connection and showered me with love that never wavered. I will tell you that the most important of those six people is your daddy, who stood by me when I was barely hanging on and refused to let me go. I will tell you about our journey, the best love story ever, and how we ended up where we did. _

_When you ask about your first days, I will tell you about your sister, who adored you from the first moment she saw you. I'll tell you about how when you cried, she would sit near you and begin reading aloud from one of her books and you would stop crying to listen to her voice. I'll tell you about your daddy who would happily hold you every minute of every day if he could. And I'll tell you about me, about how when you were nursing, I would look at you and cry happy tears because I couldn't believe you were mine. _

_We have two children now. Your sister Serena's name means "clear, tranquil and serene." And your name, Caleb, means "faithful." _

_When you are older, I will tell you about how you were the final piece in the spectacular puzzle that is our family. You are the tangible force in our lives that reminds us every day to have faith. _

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_Author's Note: It ain't over yet. One more chapter.  
_


	24. Chapter 24

Derek went back on travel duty with the team in the middle of October, and though Emily missed him when he was gone on a case, when he was home, he was still walking on clouds. She was glad he hadn't taken a transfer. Working for the BAU balanced him, and Emily knew all too well how important it was to have that balance in life.

On her part, she more than merely managed his absences. What Derek had worried about feeling like too much for her to handle alone never materialized. What happened instead was that her capacity to love with pure joy extended farther than she ever thought possible. Before she had felt this way with just Derek, like there was an aura of light around her whenever she saw him or touched him, and she thought she'd pretty much reached the limit on how far that light could expand. But it had expanded again with Serena, and then after Caleb came it expanded even further. And she held them all within that light, not just her little family, but all the people she knew and cared about. When Judy was over one day holding Caleb, she smiled at Emily and said, "Emily, I swear I have never in my life seen someone as radiantly happy as you. I get a contact high just being around you."

The team stopped by regularly and Emily loved their visits. They were very good about making sure Serena felt just as valued and loved as Caleb, showering both children with affection. JJ started coming in every morning and every evening, before and after she and Derek would drive to work together just for a quick peek and a little snuggle with the baby she'd help bring into this world.

Emily's body was different now - loose in abdomen where she used to be firm, though that was slowly improving, and if she thought her boobs were big during pregnancy, that was nothing compared to how they were now that she was breastfeeding. She and Derek both still loved her body; it had carefully and lovingly carried their son.

At the end of October, Dr. Rodgers gave her a new IUD and said she was healed and could return to her regular activities. Derek and her had had a long discussion about birth control. They felt assured that the combination of an IUD and Emily's breastfeeding would do the job for now. When Caleb started eating solids and she breastfed less, Derek offered up a vasectomy without hesitation. Her body had done its job, he told her, he could take one for the team. They agreed that they'd had enough healing for the time being and he could wait a few months.

Emily had read a lot about pregnancy, giving birth, breastfeeding and caring for the baby. She had never really read about sex after having the baby, except to know that they'd have to wait several weeks and get the go ahead from her doctor first. When Dr. Rodgers asked her if she had any questions about resuming sex, Emily had told her, "No, I'm good!" It was Derek, she thought; they'd go slow, they'd figure it out. Had she not shut down that conversation with such confidence in her voice, where the normally thorough Dr. Rodgers probably thought she'd read a novel on the topic, she might have known about the effects of breastfeeding on one's sex life.

Emily laughed, both in humor and complete love, when she thought about that first time again with Derek; it was quite a little adventure.

Serena was at school and Emily had just put Caleb down for a nap in his crib, rather than the bassinet, in preparation for when Derek returned home in the late morning after being gone on a case for three days. He found Emily on their bed, naked. She'd thought about keeping her nursing bra and pads on, figuring there would be a little bit of milk leakage when he touched her breasts, but decided against it. This was her, and him, always him. She wanted full-body contact. She winked at him when he came in the bedroom door, "Green light, Derek."

He laughed and quickly stripped off his clothes. They kissed and touched everywhere, but despite the fact that she was very excited, they both quickly learned that one of the effects of breastfeeding was a complete absence of any natural lubrication on her part. Having never had the need to purchase lubricant, Derek grabbed Emily's phone from the bedside table, mumbling that there must be something they could use in this house, and searched online. He found what he was looking for, whispered a quiet "praise Google" and kissed her before standing up and quickly and quietly going downstairs. He came back in the room with a bottle of olive oil and said with a grin, "Wanna cook us up something good?"

It felt different, not bad and not uncomfortable, just different. And wonderful, too, to be with him like this again. Absolutely wonderful. She was on top of him, leaning forward, hands on his chest and quietly moaning through a gently rolling orgasm when she felt her milk let down and start dripping out of her and onto him. She stopped moving and stared at Derek, who looked surprised. But then he shrugged his shoulders and laughed and grabbed her waist, turning her and laying her down so he was on top of her. "Olive oil and breast milk. We're quite the gourmets," he laughed, and she joined him. And then he started moving inside her again. After that they bought some lubricant and kept a couple of towels on hand next to the bed.

In November, Emily started pumping and storing some breast milk so she would have a good stockpile when she returned to work in January. They introduced Caleb to the bottle for one or two feedings a day, and Serena and Derek both loved to feed him. On the nights when he was home, Derek took over one night-time feeding so Emily could get a longer stretch of sleep. And one night, at around 2:00am, Emily awoke to Derek quietly laughing and crying, whispering, "Em," while he sat in the rocking chair in the corner of the bedroom. An empty bottle was beside Derek, next to a dim lamp on a little side table, and Caleb was laying on Derek's thighs. Emily sat up in bed and Derek looked at her and laughed through his tears. "He's smiling at me, Em. A real smile. Damn, he is so beautiful."

Emily crept out of bed to look, and Caleb's eyes found her. She smiled at the baby and he seemed to contemplate her for a few seconds, trying to find the right muscles. And then he smiled back. He looked like the perfect combination of both; Derek's beautiful smile and her shining eyes. In an instant she was laughing and crying, too.

A little before Thanksgiving, they traded in Emily's car for a roomier vehicle with a third row. She told JJ and Will, who had been paying a neighbor to be their sitter when needed, that she missed Henry and she was back in business. At that point, Serena had started in on the Harry Potter books and her play with Henry stopped involving super heroes and started involving wands and wizards. When he started being at the house more again, Serena decided to start the series over at the beginning with him, reading to him aloud and encouraging him to try reading some to her. At seven, he was a good reader, but those books were a little much for him. He tried, and Serena sat patiently with her wide eyes and big smile, helping him with the bigger words and being patient while he slowly read a paragraph before handing the book back to her. Emily watched them one evening from Serena's doorway and thought of her and Derek, and how they used to read to each other via Skype when she was in London. Full circle, indeed.

It wasn't long after that, when Emily was making dinner and Derek was holding Caleb, walking around the kitchen and singing to him, that they heard Serena's excited voice from the living room. "Check mate, Spencer!"

Emily and Derek stopped what they were doing and walked to the living room to see a smiling Serena looking at Spencer. Spencer handled it without shock, or anything that would tip Serena off that her win was unbelievable. He put his hand out to Serena, as if to shake it, and said, "Well played, Serena."

Serena stood up and gave him a hug instead of shaking his hand. "It was as fun game. You always win, Spencer, but I got you this time! But it was a good game. You did a good job!"

They talked that night with Spencer, after Serena was in bed. "She doesn't know it's remarkable," Spencer had told them._ She confounds me, her IQ is on par with mine or maybe higher, but her social and empathy skills are out of this world, she's happy, just let her be a little girl, you'll know when she needs more_ - that was the gist of what he'd told them. They took Spencer's advice.

Fran flew out for Thanksgiving. It was her third trip since the baby was born, and Emily and Derek pitched a proposal to her. There was a house in Springfield that Derek had purchased in a foreclosure auction back when he'd sold his home after Emily came back from London. He'd put in some work on it last year, before Serena, but he hadn't really done more than check on the property since then. It was a cozy two bedroom on a quiet street. It still needed some work, which they could hire someone to do. It was fifteen minutes away from their house. It was Fran's if she wanted it.

Fran cried and hugged them and said she felt like she couldn't accept something like, but upon their reassurance that they wanted to do this, wanted her here, she agreed. They talked about her moving in the spring.

It was the first Saturday in December when Emily spontaneously decided it was time to give Derek the surprise of his life...

She was on the couch feeding Caleb while Derek and Serena put ornaments on the Christmas tree. Derek had a lot of ornaments from when he was a child and he told Serena different stories about them while Emily listened with a smile on her face. It was one of those moments she sometimes experienced where the love she felt for him and their family took her breath away.

Emily had surprised him with the name change, and she put that on par with his surprise with the engagement ring. She wanted something for him on par with what he did for her and them, when they got Serena. She looked at Caleb for a moment and then back up at Derek and Serena, watching and pondering, coming to a decision. He'd never do what she was planning to her, because he knew she might be embarrassed and overwhelmed. But he would love it if she did it for him, absolutely love it. She wondered if she could pull it off in eighteen days, but decided to go for it.

"What would you think about having a fancy Christmas party here on the 23rd?" Emily asked. "We never do things like that and I think it would be fun to get dressed up and celebrate with the team. Everyone's staying in town this year. Your mom and sisters will be here by then, too."

Serena bounced up and down, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Derek smiled at Serena and then looked at Emily, "Sure! Are you really up for that?"

"Absolutely! I'll invite the team. I'll get outside help if I need it. I'd love to do a celebration with all of them and our family."

When Caleb was done eating, Emily passed the baby to Derek so she could run to the bathroom. She quickly sent a text to JJ and Garcia while she was upstairs. "Need your help with a Christmas present for Derek. Derek's meeting with the contractor at the house in Springfield at 4:00. Can you come over?" They both quickly responded that they could.

When JJ and Garcia arrived at the house, they looked excited and anticipatory. Henry ran upstairs to see Serena, and JJ took Caleb from Emily's arms. They went into the living room to talk.

Emily smiled and laughed before she could compose herself and start talking. "OK, here's the deal. We're going to have a Christmas party here on the 23rd, so mark your calendars for that now. But I need your help. I need to find a good caterer to cook the food, which will be hard to find at this point. I think I have who I need to do what I want but may need your legal finesse there as well if she's not available. And I need you to tell the team, but keep this off texts and email because I want it to be a complete surprise for Derek and you all swap phones all of the time on a case."

They both looked at Emily, confused. Emily laughed again, "I'm going to ask a judge I know to show up here during that dinner. And Derek and I are going to get married."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily was careful and precise in her planning and the changes that went on in the house in the days that followed.

Barbara Gray, the district court judge she'd met and talked with during that case with little Hannah over a year ago, said she'd be more than happy to be there on the 23rd of the December. After Emily explained everything to her, she said she'd take care of the marriage license, it would be different but not anything that would be a problem, that it would probably be the highlight of her career.

Garcia found Emily an amazing caterer who would do the dinner on the 23rd at their house. When Emily received that news, she told Derek that she really wanted to enjoy that night, that they'd never done anything like a fancy dinner in their home before, and she wanted this caterer to prepare the food so they could all relax. He didn't blink an eye, just agreed.

She started making gradual changes around the house that could easily be explained as someone in love with her family, someone just a little bit bored at home while not working. She moved the living room furniture and said she liked it better that way with the Christmas tree in the room. She printed and framed pictures long held in the digital world and hung them over the mantel on the fireplace. She moved photos she already had printed on the fireplace mantel and the wall above it as well. When Derek came home one night and saw the picture of them on the dance floor that very first time, over eight years ago, he asked, "Why now?"

She simply told him, "Because I want everyone to see our story, my beautiful man."

The team knew, but not Derek's family, not the kids, not Serena. Emily could trust the team to hide things; she didn't want to give everyone else time to unknowingly spill the beans to Derek, who was so attune to human behavior.

On December 20th, the team got called in on a case in Texas. Emily was the one who picked up Fran, along with Derek's sisters, Desiree and Sarah, from the airport. They gushed over the kids in the car, they put their bags in the spare bedroom where Emily had set up two air mattresses. And that afternoon, while Serena was across the street playing with Ella before Judy and her family left for the holidays, Emily told them her plan. She asked them to be discreet. She impressed upon them the desire for surprise and told them all the stories as to why. They helped her clean, they hugged her, they kissed and hugged Caleb and Serena. And more than the holidays the year before, Emily learned exactly how Derek had managed to become who he was.

Emily started getting worried that the whole plan would be a bust because the case in Texas was taking so long, but early in the morning on the 23rd, JJ sent her a text, "We're done. Flying home. We'll make it in plenty of time. Taking everything in me to not dance or cry or piss myself in excitement! Love you, Em!"

Emily smiled at that text and took Serena in her room.

"My sweet girl, I have a secret to tell you. Daddy and I were planning to get married awhile ago, but before we could, you came into our lives and then Caleb did. Your daddy loves surprises, and he's surprised me with so many things. I want to surprise him back. A judge is coming tonight and we're going to get married, but I don't want him to know until the judge shows up. And I need you, my spectacular Serena, to help me."

Serena blinked at her with a smile on her face, "I'll help you, Mommy. I won't tell." She gave Emily a hug. "I love this, Mommy," Serena whispered.

Emily nodded and showed Serena a box. "I'm going to put this box down in the drawer of the side table in the living room. When the judge asks for the rings, it will be your job to get the box and hand it to us, OK?"

Serena nodded and giggled. "OK!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Derek arrived at the house around 4:00 that afternoon. He looked tired, but perked up at the site of the Serena, Caleb and his mom and sisters. The caterer was already there prepping things in the kitchen. The house was clean and looked ready for a party. Derek napped for an hour before waking to the sounds of preparation.

They dressed, Emily in a cream cocktail dress, Serena in a matching colored dress with a long skirt and a black ribbon around the waist. Emily dressed Caleb in a little baby suit. Sweet Caleb, who smiled at her constantly while he was on the changing table, like he knew the secret, too.

Derek showered and dressed in a shirt and tie. He kissed Emily's neck when they were both in the bathroom. He told her she was beautiful, that he was looking forward to everyone being there.

The team arrived, with Jack, Henry and Will, and there was a flurry of conversation and laughter, drinks and appetizers. Emily could hardly contain the butterflies in her stomach.

At 6:30, the doorbell rang and Emily asked Derek if he could see who was at the door. Emily shared a huge smile with JJ and handed Caleb to her as Derek went to open the door. Emily quietly walked behind him, the sounds in the room quieted.

Derek opened the door to Barbara Gray, a friendly and pleasant looking woman in her fifties, with bright eyes and a happy smile on her face. "Derek Morgan?" she asked.

"Yes?" he asked in a confused voice.

"I'm Judge Gray, a district court judge here in Fairfax. I was asked to come here tonight to perform a wedding ceremony," she said as her smile got bigger.

Emily saw Derek's back freeze at the door for a second before he turned back to look at her, at the tears welling in her eyes and the huge smile on her face. He looked at her with his eyebrows raised and she laughed and nodded her head. "Yes, she means us," she said happily.

Derek shook his head and huffed out a laugh and said, "But we don't have rings."

"Taken care of, Derek. You're not the only one who can buy jewelry," answered Emily.

"But I don't have anything ready to say for vows."

"What more is there to say?" she said with a sniffle and light laugh.

He stepped towards Emily and wrapped her in a hug, whispered in her ear, "Nicely played, Emily Morgan."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The ceremony was simple; they followed Barbara's cues. They repeated traditional vows. Though Emily could have written her opus about Derek, he already knew all of that and it didn't need a public declaration.

They stood in front of the fireplace with their lives together on display in pictures behind Judge Gray, their family gathered together in the living room before them. Caleb slept contentedly in JJ's arms. Rossi took pictures. Serena hugged their legs during the ceremony, a happier smile on her face than Emily had ever seen.

When it came time for the rings, Serena brought the box forward. She handed it to Emily. They veered a bit from a simple, traditional marriage here. Emily opened the box and gave Derek his ring before she got hers.

It was a simple white gold band. But as Emily held it, she tilted it up towards Derek so he could see the inscription inside the band: "Best love story ever."

His eyes swam with tears and he whispered, "Definitely," while Emily placed the ring on his finger.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Author's note: Done! I love them. I love this story. It's been a great ride and the next story has been swirling in my head. Thank you for all of the wonderful feedback - it's made this story even more special!_


End file.
